Advocate vol. 21 no. 1 • March 2014 • www.nteu.org.au • ISSN 1329-7295 CAE action success! Better pay & conditions, workplace rights secured • ALP reversal on dumb cuts • ERA and intellectual freedom • University marketing slogans • Commission of Audit • John Pilger’s Utopia • Members in Australia Day honours • Recognition vs Sovereignty • Trans-Pacific Partnership • The Great Leap Backwards • What to expect from Budget 2014 • General Staff Conference • Academic scattering • Humanities under attack • Canada’s war on science • ... and much more. UniHealth Insurance is launching on 1 April 2014 UniHealth Insurance is private health insurance created exclusively for people in the tertiary education community and their families. 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UHI-NTEU-03/14 Advocate ISSN 1321-8476 NTEU National Office, PO Box 1323, Sth Melbourne VIC 3205 Published by National Tertiary Education Union ABN 38 579 396 344 1st floor, 120 Clarendon St, Sth Melbourne VIC Publisher Grahame McCulloch Editor Jeannie Rea phone (03) 9254 1910 fax (03) 9254 1915 Production Paul Clifton Editorial Assistance Anastasia Kotaidis email [email protected] Feedback, advertising and other enquiries: [email protected] Division Offices www.nteu.org.au/divisions Contents All text and images © NTEU 2014 unless otherwise stated. Branch Offices www.nteu.org.au/branches 2 Freedom is not just another word p. 5 p. 17 Editorial, Jeannie Rea 3 Radical conservatism reprised From the General Secretary Cover image: CAE strike supporter. UPDATE Photo by Toby Cotton. 4 ALP agrees uni cuts are dumb cuts NSW may hand unis over to Feds 5 Historic strike at CAE 6 Bargaining update Bargaining State of Play 7 New choice for those bullied at work Members vote for action at UWA UQ staff vote to strike 8 Agreement reached at ACT unis FEATURES 26 Academic scattering 9 UTS Branch President suspended The traditional academic career structure is 18 Higher education and the age of 10 Unionists show support for refugees built around a mobility that is hard to maintain uncertainty with relationships or dependants. Katie Mack is CARA in Australia Those parts of the Budget dealing with uni- still trying to figure out how to keep a pet. versity funding will be shaped by the findings 11 MOOCs still hyped, but cold reality of the Kemp Norton Review of the demand 28 Dumb cuts are still being pursued seeping in driven model (DDM). The Coalition promised one million new jobs over the next 5 years, which one would think Anna Stewart Memorial Project 20 Humanities and social science under meant that the focus must surely be turning to attack 12 Commission of Audit skills development. Yet the higher education Andrew Bonnell warns on the Government’s funding cuts are still being pursued. 13 NTEU Lecture: Prof Marian Baird plans to redirect ARC funding from ‘ridiculous’ research in the humanities and social science 29 Trading away democracy UNICASUAL NEWS to research ‘on things that really matter.’ The Government will cede power to legislate on public interest matters to corporations if the 14 I know what you did last summer 22 Is the ERA antithetical to intellectual Trans-Pacific Partnership is ratified. freedom? 15 Swinburne casual victory Jen Kwok reports the ARC is insisting it will 30 The neo-conservative war on science A measure of job security incorporate new measures on impact and In Canada, a war on science being waged engagement into the 2015 ERA exercise. But it against higher education and research; a por- National Insecure Work Conference is apparent that the new measures will be driv- tent for the new Australian policy agenda. en by metrics and protections to intellectual INDIGENOUS NEWS freedom will be missing. 32 Abolishing caps by selling off debt The UK’s planned removal of enrolment caps is 16 WIPC:E 2014 23 New Policy Advocacy website to be funded by selling student debt. TPP: A new threat to Sovereignty 24 The more things change, the more 33 IWD is more than just morning tea 17 John Pilger’s Utopia they stay the same International Women’s Day is more than morn- Previously departmentalised Indigenous ing teas and empty rhetoric; the success of COLUMNS funding programs have been folded into the Bluestocking Week shows we can do more. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Is 34 Do marketing slogans assist choice Environment 36 A tail of two BNs this a progressive and necessary step for the ISO 14001 News from the Net, by Pat Wright achievement of the stated goals for Aboriginal of university? and Torres Strait Islander affairs, or will rhetoric We use institutional branding slogans to deter- In accordance with 37 The Great Leap Backwards and tokenism continue to rein over substance? mine whether marketing expenditure assists NTEU policy to Lowering the Boom, by Ian Lowe reduce our impact students when choosing where to study. on the natural envi- 38 Working until it’s right p. 20 p. 30 ronment, Advocate Thesis Whisperer, Inger Mewburn is printed using vegetable based inks 39 We need farsighted university with alcohol free printing initiatives councils, not myopic ones on FSC certified pa- Letter from NZ, Lesley Francey, TEU per under ISO 14001 Environmental YOUR UNION Certification. 40 Members in Australia Day honours Advocate is available online as a PDF at Professor Kate Warner AM nteu.org.au/advocate and an e-book at 41 Professor Rosemary Owens AM www.issuu.com/nteu NTEU members may 42 General Staff Conference opt for ‘soft delivery’ 44 Celebrating NTEU’s Foundation (email notification of online copy rather Members than mailed printed 46 Organising in a cold, cold climate version). Details at nteu.org.au/ Nancy Millis Medal softfdelivery New and relocated NTEU staff NTEU ADVOCATE • vol. 21 no. 1 • March 2014 • www.nteu.org.au/advocate • page 1 Editorial Jeannie Rea, National President Freedom is not just another word* Academic freedom is the freedom to con- Sydney Vice-Chancellor that he needs to Presumably, the Freedom Commissioner is duct research, teach, speak and publish, ‘satisfy himself that the academic standing explaining to his Coalition friends that the subject to the norms and standards of of the university and it’s international right of freedom of speech also applies to scholarly inquiry, without interference or reputation is not harmed’ by the publicly academics. Indeed, Mr Wilson should also penalty, wherever the search for truth and expressed views of academics. Other draw their attention to the 2011 amend- understanding may lead. Coalition MPs have apparently called upon ment to the Higher Education Support Act the University to discipline controversial 2003, supported by the Coalition, which Colloquium of University Presidents, 2005 academics. states that universities in receipt of public The mandate of universities in modern funds ‘must have a policy that upholds free Quoted in The Australian, Mr Pyne has democracies is to provide an environment intellectual inquiry in relation to learning, recognised that ‘each university is respon- for the development of ideas, rigorous ex- teaching and research.’ sible for its own governance, but univer- perimentation, the testing of hypotheses, sities should avoid needless controversies We can look forward to more passion- and critical analysis of existing knowl- that damage their reputation [and] also ate philosophical and practical tussles edge. Universities are here to encourage make Australia look less respectable to our over the right to free speech within and open and rigorous discussions designed potential student market.’ He also stated outside universities. It is not without con- to advance knowledge, not rubber-stamp that: ‘Obviously, many members of par- troversy, as the freedom to speak is only some ideas as good and others as bad liament are concerned to ensure that the available to those who have the means based on the personal views we may hold. reputation for high quality that Australian to be heard. Universities can provide safe Stephen Garton, University of Sydney, universities have earned over decades is spaces and voice for the most disadvan- 2014 not threatened in any way.’ taged and powerless. Universities do not always do this despite the high minded Fortunately, University of Sydney Acting rhetoric. It has not taken Vice-Chancellor and Provost Professor long for the Abbott Stephen Garton quickly jumped in to look We also need to remind ourselves that after the international reputation and intellectual freedom is more than free Coalition Government standing of Australian universities through speech.