ADVOCATE
DECEMBER 2024
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Foreword by Alison Barnes, NTEU National President
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Ending the university governance horror show –for good
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What’s happening with International Student Caps
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Together we can… win better workplaces
‘When we grow, we win’: FedUni Branch’s remarkable fight for jobs
Smashing the taboo: why reproductive leave is a critical entitlement
International solidarity and justice
National Tertiary Education Union
Dear members,
Welcome to the NTEU’s end of year publication the Advocate.
This edition includes an interview with FedUni Branch Vice President Dr Verity Archer, who explains how they have secured a remarkable win alongside growing membership at a time of crisis.
We also provide a year-in-review of how the NTEU has continued its proud tradition of standing up for international solidarity and justice across different corners of the globe.
I delve into why fighting for reproductive leave is a crucial entitlement in terms of breaking down the taboo around periods and menopause, and ensuring more women are supported to stay at work.
NTEU General Secretary Dr Damien Cahill explains the importance of our collective enforcement campaign in his industrial update.
Assistant Secretary Gabe Gooding looks at artificial intelligence and why it is crucial that workers’ voices shape its application in our universities.
We put the spotlight on the Union’s major report into the governance crisis in Australian universities and why building on that campaign’s success is key.
The concerning insights from the latest I’m Not Racist, But… survey are also detailed ahead of the final report’s release next year.
There’s also a look at the issue of international student caps, which are set to be debated in the run-up to next year’s federal election.
On behalf of Damien, Gabe and myself, we would like to wish you a happy and safe holiday period.
We also want to thank you for all your efforts in 2024. Everyone should be extremely proud of what NTEU members standing together have accomplished this year.
With 2025 shaping up as a massive year for higher education, it’s exciting to think about what we can achieve after some well-earned time off.
In union,
Dr Alison Barnes NTEU National President
ENDING THE UNIVERSITY GOVERNANCE HORROR SHOW – FOR GOOD
Australian public universities are suffering from a governance crisis. These are not isolated incidents.
The culture of exorbitant executive pay, insecure jobs, systemic wage theft, lavish spending on consultants and a hiringfiring yo-yo has become ingrained in institutions that should be serving the public good.
The NTEU’s Ending Bad Governance For Good Report was built on hundreds of members sharing information about managerial waste, largesse and other questionable decisions.
» Universities are failing on workforce planning, with a hiring and firing yo-yo resulting in managements announcing redundancies, then hiring back staff, only to announce more job losses within just a few years
The headline numbers are damning. But the member testimonies really drive home the inexplicable, incompetent and irresponsible decisions university leaders are making.
As one worker said: “There is no meaningful governance.”
Thank you to everyone who shared their stories
The report made a number of key findings that highlight the poor governance practices plaguing our public universities:
There are now 306 senior university executives who are paid more than their state premier
The average vice-chancellor pay was $1.049 million in 2023
Universities spent up to a whopping $734 million in 2023 on “consulting and professional advice or services
Some 68 per cent of all higher education staff are employed insecurely using fixed-term or casual
Systemic wage theft is rife. The total confirmed stolen from workers is $226 million with a further $168 million set aside by universities to cover other incidents
“THEY BRING IN FRIENDS, CONSULTANTS, SCHOOL FRIENDS, PAID THEM BIG BUCKS TO TELL THEM HOW TO RUN THE UNI. NOT A SINGLE THING DELIVERED SUCCESSFULLY, WITH MILLIONS GONE DOWN THE DRAIN AS ACADEMICS TRY TO MANAGE PROJECTS THEN BROUGHT IN AUSTERITY MEASURES BECAUSE OF THEIR PURE INCOMPETENCE AND NEGLIGENCE”.
The report also carried the story of one worker, who this year signed a 14th contract after 13 consecutive one-year deals.
“I have been informed that the university will never carry the “risk” of employees at [my research centre] for longer than 2 years at a time,” they said.
This broken governance model is being allowed to thrive as the meagre checks and balances that currently exist continue to be eroded by opaque appointments – including to governing bodies like councils and senates.
In fact, a quarter of appointments to those bodies – which are charged with a critical oversight function – are unelected people from corporate backgrounds like mining, banking and other big businesses.
This is a concerning trend given universities are supposed to operate for the public good, not be profit-driven corporate bureaucracies.
Ending Bad Governance For Good generated significant media attention with coverage in the Guardian, ABC, The Australian, Herald-Sun, AAP, Times Higher Education, 2GB and a plethora of commercial radio news bulletins.
“THE LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THEIR BEHAVIOUR IS DISGUSTING.”
Read the full report and join our campaign to end bad governance at: betterunis.nteu.au
According to a subsequent front page newspaper report, Education Minister Jason Clare is planning to crack down on wage theft and exorbitant vicechancellor pay.
“The intervention in university governance by federal, state and territory education ministers follows a scathing report by the National Tertiary Education Union last week, detailing $226m in confirmed underpayments to university staff,” the story published in The Australian read.
This is a significant milestone that’s the direct result of Union members working together over many years to fight for governance reform.
It’s critical NTEU members hold the minister to his word with an election just months away.
Mr Clare’s statements are encouraging but governance reform will only become a reality through sustained pressure from Union members writing to him to stress the importance of action.
It’s time to send a message that the time for talk is over. The future of Australian universities depends on being organisations with good governance and strong accountability.
“THIS TOP DOWN APPROACH IS MAKING A MOCKERY OF THE GOVERNANCE PROCESS.”
WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CAPS
A widely debated plan to cap international student numbers may be stalled for now, but the issue isn’t dead with a federal election on the horizon.
An ugly debate about international students has cast a dark shadow over higher education in recent months.
Federal Labor’s plan to cap annual overseas enrollments at 270,000 looked destined to become law with the opposition’s support.
That was until Peter Dutton’s Opposition pulled the rug from under the bill, with a shock announcement opposing the legislation.
While Dutton’s stated reason behind the sudden shift was that the plan was a “dog’s breakfast”, it is also suspected setting up a political fight on immigration at the election was just too tempting for the Liberal leader.
Especially when Dutton then doubled down on a plan of even “deeper cuts” to international student numbers, ignoring that this would have been possible under the very bill he rejected.
The Greens and some crossbench politicians have maintained outright opposition to caps.
The debate is far less about the structure of universities’ business models than it is about unfairly blaming international students for the housing crisis we’re seeing across Australia.
What does the current impasse mean on the ground?
Firstly, Ministerial Direction 107 will remain in place.
Made under former Minister for Home Affairs Clair O’Neil in late 2023, this directive slowed visa processing times for a significant number of tertiary education providers, based on a ‘risk’ metrics system.
In reality, this directive has made it harder for many smaller and regional universities to gain the necessary student visa approvals in a reasonable time frame. Importantly, this strategy has also essentially favoured bigger institutions with low rates of visa refusals, cancellations or overstays, and who are receiving more applications from “low risk” countries.
Ministerial Direction 107 is being used to slow down and essentially ‘cap’ international student numbers, but in a manner that cements inequity and systematic bias.
As soon as the Coalition withdrew support for the caps, Education Minister Jason Clare confirmed ministerial direction would remain in place.
Some vice-chancellors used the cover of looming international student caps to announce redundancies.
One clear example was the University of Wollongong, which claimed the caps as the justification for job losses.
That was despite the Government’s nowstalled plan being slated to increase student numbers in 2025 on 2024 levels –which could have benefitted UoW.
Like many other managements around the country, this was an audacious attempt to conceal financial mismanagement.
Other vice-chancellors engaged in scaremongering – cruelly using people’s livelihoods in a political battle against the Federal Government.
Despite the caps being off the table for the time being, redundancy programs haven’t been abandoned and apologies from management haven’t been forthcoming.
The NTEU was emphatic in calling for an end to these threats and a guarantee from Minsiter Clare that not a single job would be lost as a result of his policy.
Branches have resisted restructures through rallies, community education campaigns, digital campaigns and a range of other tools designed to fight vice-chancellors’ instinctive and destructure desire to make job losses the central tool to balance the books.
While caps have reached a parliamentary dead end, both major parties aren’t taking the idea off the table.
Want to help with the broader crossunion Federal election campaign? Sign up at: betterunis.nteu.au
In fact Peter Dutton, as referenced earlier, is promising even more severe cuts.
That’s about the sum total of the Coalition’s policy offering for higher education at this late point in the electoral cycle.
Higher education policy should be about improving our public universities so staff are given every chance to provide the world-class education, research and professional services our society deserves.
International students play an important role beyond revenue raising for universities in terms of cultural enrichment and diplomatic soft power –a fact that has been hard to hear over the dogwhistling some politicians have engaged in at times.
So, at next year’s federal election, NTEU members will play an important role in showing all candidates of all stripes why real higher education reform is critical.
Stay tuned for more information about how you can join in our federal election campaign to create better universities.
By Damien Cahill, NTEU General Secretary
Over the last two years NTEU members have won significant improvements to working conditions as part of our enterprise bargaining campaign.
By working together, NTEU members have won:
» Pay rises above the national average
» Over 2,500 new secure jobs for casuals
TOGETHER WE CAN… WIN BETTER WORKPLACES
» Redundancy as an option of last resort provisions
» Strengthened academic freedom protections
» Paid gender affirmation leave
» Improved rights to renewal and conversion for fixed-term employees
» Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets in every university enterprise agreement
The NTEU’s ultimately successful enterprise bargaining campaign has been a long road. It began late in 2020 at a special NTEU National Council where representatives from every NTEU Branch voted for an ambitious agenda for workplace change. They’d seen the destructive effects of mass redundancies and employment insecurity, and resolved to campaign for permanent jobs and limits to managerial prerogative.
The campaign for better workplaces hasn’t been easy. At all but a few universities, employers resisted NTEU members’ reasonable claims for workplace reform. And that makes these wins even more significant. NTEU members had to campaign, defeat multiple non-union ballots and take industrial action to win changes to their working conditions.
However, as we know all too well, an enterprise agreement is only ever as good as the ability of union members to enforce it.
And that’s why we now need to work together, as a union, to ensure that employers follow through on the measures they agreed to during enterprise bargaining. This will be the Union’s focus for the coming year.
We need to campaign and put collective pressure on employers to deliver on crucial issues including job security, manageable workloads, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment targets.
And we need to campaign to save jobs. In the last few months, employers at
several universities have announced brutal job cuts, with hundreds of colleagues facing redundancy at some unis. While the federal government’s proposed cap on international student enrolments has often been cited as justification, at most universities the real reason has more to do with historical governance problems and financial mismanagement. Yet again staff are being forced to pay for poor management.
But, as NTEU members at ANU have recently shown, we can push back and save jobs. At ANU, NTEU members led a successful campaign to defeat the Vice Chancellor’s plan to rescind an agreed staff salary increase of 2.5 per cent. While the Vice Chancellor claimed this would enable the Uni to save some of the 600 jobs slated for redundancy, in reality the promise was unenforceable. And many staff recalled the last time they voted narrowly to support such a scheme and uni management then turned around and slashed 400 jobs. As a result of the NTEU’s campaign 88 per cent of staff voted ‘no’ to the Vice Chancellor’s proposal to cut their pay. This came on the back of NTEU members working together and using the enterprise agreement to save the jobs of all NTEU members in the College of Health and Medicine whose jobs had been targeted for redundancy in the first stage of a university wide change program.
We are always stronger together, and by organising around the provisions of our hard-won enterprise agreements we can save the jobs of NTEU members and we can build better universities.
BUT I’M NOT A RACIST...
By Celeste Liddle
When it comes to the experiences of racism, discrimination and lateral violence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff at university, it is an unfortunate fact that not a lot has changed. Indeed, these experiences seem to be becoming more prevalent.
Concurrently, when it comes to universities taking measures, implementing policies, and ensuring universities provide the safest, and most inclusive, environments they can, they fall well short of doing so.
This is what the results of the third member survey of our NTEU branches, and the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership, have shown us. Frankly, the sector still has so very far to go.
Nearly 30 per cent of NTEU Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership responded to the member survey, which equates to around 11 per cent of the national staff cohort at universities. The questions posed to the membership were the same questions asked in our 2011
and 2018 member surveys. The purpose of this was to see if there has been any variance of experience in the time since we began asking members about their experiences on campus.
In short, the variance of experience over the years has not been positive. When asked about racism in society more broadly, 93 per cent of respondents stated that racial discrimination in Australia is a widespread social phenomenon. Over two-thirds of our respondents stated that they themselves had experienced this racism in society, representing an increase of over 11 per cent since our first survey in 2011.
When it came to reporting on their experiences in the workplace, over 90 per cent of respondents stated they had experienced discrimination based upon their culture, or their cultural obligations, on campus as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university workers. This was again an increase of over 11 per cent on 2011 numbers. The perpetrators of this discrimination were, most often, middle management and line managers in university hierarchies. When members endeavoured to address these problems
using the structures available in the universities, over half stated the reports had amounted to no action being taken.
Finally, when racism and discrimination is fed on campus, this in-turn, fuels an environment where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff are placed in competition with each other to survive. Lateral violence, therefore, thrives. Compared to the results from the 2018 member survey, there has been an increase of nearly 6 per cent in respondents stating they had experienced lateral violence on campus. The most sobering finding is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff often receive no remedy because the offenders are typically their colleagues or direct supervisors.. In short, there is nowhere to go.
This was backed up by the results of the branch survey conducted parallel to the member survey. When branches were first surveyed in 2011, it was demonstrated that many universities lacked current anti-racism and equal opportunity policies, or that where policies existed, they were out-ofdate, sometimes by decades. The
Keep an eye out for the final ‘But I’m not a racist’ report – out in 2025.
results from 2024 revealed that though universities have shown improvements in ensuring equal opportunity officers were employed, or that there were implementation committees for equity policies, this has not translated to tangible improvements on the ground for staff.
As a union, with this information available at our fingertips, the results demonstrate one thing more clearly than anything else – the work we do to address racism and discrimination in our collective agreements remains utterly crucial. University practices are not going to change unless we continue to challenge them, and we ensure that they are adhering to the agreements we make with them. Furthermore, it is crucial that our members know their rights, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers, and that they stand together to hold universities accountable.
Support the ACTU’s campaign for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers’ rights. Join the First Nation Workers’ Alliance at fnwa.org.au
‘WHEN WE GROW, WE WIN’: FEDUNI BRANCH’S REMARKABLE FIGHT FOR JOBS
Federation University staff were staring down the barrel of a 25th restructure.
A staggering 20 per cent of the workforce was under threat.
Faced with swingeing cuts, the NTEU branch dug in for the fight.
FedUni Branch Vice-President Dr Verity Archer describes the moment staff were hit with the news.
“Initially we were in shock, but we also knew that we’d been able to grow the branch over the past couple of years and that we already had delegates who were ready to fight,” Dr Archer says.
Delegates spread throughout the university held area meetings to talk to small groups about how the planned restructure would affect them.
The feedback from those conversations was critical.
“Once we had that information we were able to tailor our messages to the staff in ways that would really get through and would really activate those staff members,” Dr Archer says.
“It’s important to remember that staff aren’t all homogenous.
“They all have different concerns and once you get on top of what those concerns are by having a delegate that can reach out to them in a way that they can be on the same wavelength as those members, then that can be fed back to leadership and we can really
work from those grassroots concerns and messages.”
Among staff there were serious concerns that support for first-in-family and disadvantaged students was going to be cut.
There was also some concern that industrial action would cause more pain for students.
“We had to tailor our message to let them know that if we let these cuts go through, then the students have no hope,” Dr Archer says.
“We’re the only university in this community and if we don’t offer good quality education to those students they’ve got nothing else.
“So we needed to fight back.”
Even after the redundancies were announced, the branch’s growth trajectory continued.
Membership rose in both raw and density terms.
It proved a solid foundation to launch a multifaceted campaign to save jobs.
Fighting at the university level, NTEU members targeted university leaders, rallied on campuses, handed out information about the real-world implications of the plan and brought students into the conversation.
And the campaign wasn’t confined to campuses.
“We fought at the community level too. We went out to schools. We spoke to parents who had students in high school, students who were likely to want to do subjects like nursing and teaching at FedUni,” Dr Archer says.
Parents learned their children would have diminished support if the plan went ahead.
A compelling example was the fact that existing 200-student nursing tutorials would almost certainly grow in class size under the shadow of a fresh round of redundancies.
“That’s the sort of message that really gets through to parents,” Dr Archer says.
The branch generated significant local media interest.
Ballarat’s The Courier with the community’s best interests informing its reporting.
Political engagement was also important.
The branch – led by president Dr Mathew Abbott with Dr Verity Archer as his deputy – met with federal and state MPs.
This included meeting with Labor’s State Education Minister Gayle Tierney, Greens MPs who questioned the Victorian Government about the cuts, and Federal Nationals MP Darren Chester, who represents Gippsland.
Dr Verity Archer, FedUni Branch Vice-President
“We’ve managed to get voices that we wouldn’t normally hear from.”
Mr Chester pressured Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, whose office the branch was also in contact with.
The message to politicians was clear: this was a failure of university governance and it was time for university leadership to consider their positions.
Through working across different spheres, the campaign achieved a successful outcome.
“We managed to, I think as a result of our actions, get the redundancies reduced to 160 people as opposed to 200 effective full-time staff members,” Dr Archer says.
“That’s a remarkable win because 200 EFT, you’re looking at about 300 to 400 staff members when you consider parttime staff members.
“This is a campaign strategy that we’ll continue on with in the future.”
Dr Archer wasn’t always on the front lines.
While working as a casual academic at ANU, she first became an engaged Union member.
She made a shy call to the Union after realising the University hadn’t paid her for marking.
That sparked a realisation there was systemic wage theft.
From there, colleagues came together to make a collective claim for the pay they were entitled to.
“We won!” Verity says.
“And $2000 turned up in my pay packet, which at the time was an absolute lifesaver. I could pay my rent and I could buy groceries. These things are so important.
“When we stand together, we do win.”
The NTEU’s FedUni branch has generated growth through grassroots engagement.
Dr Archer says in the main, it’s been about getting members to tell branch leadership what they want from the Union.
“That has been really effective for us and it has made members a lot more engaged. Reaching out to members via delegates in their own particular unit or discipline area has been really effective,” she said.
“We’ve managed to get voices that we wouldn’t normally hear from.”
It’s a model with potential adaptation at branches around the country.
Dr Archer says there’s never been a more important time to be an NTEU member given the challenges higher education is facing.
“If we come together as a union we can fight against some of those trends that we’ve seen,” she says.
“Join your union today because together we can grow. When we grow, we can fight and we can win.”
ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
By Gabe Gooding, NTEU National Assistant Secretary
Artificial intelligence is rapidly diffusing into all aspects of our lives including our workplaces. While we don’t expect it to produce a jobs apocalypse immediately, it can, and will, have profound effects on our work.
AI can enhance and enrich work and outcomes, provided that it is developed and implemented in an ethical manner that does not represent a high risk to the sector, our members or the national interest in maintaining a trusted high-quality higher education system. Currently we are seeing unregulated, ad hoc use of AI without consultation in our workplaces and without any discussion of transparency and privacy.
Mining of content by Large Language Models can rapidly undermine the nature of academic work, and is already having impacts on members through misappropriation of intellectual property as well as denial of the moral rights of authors. The currency of an academic career, authorship and citations, is rapidly undermined when work is harvested and de-identified.
It may be that AI will develop subtlety and nuance as it improves, but as it is, the lack of human ability to adjust to circumstances and imagine outcomes is having an impact on members and students. Where professional staff who give course advice and provide student support are “supplemented” by AI chat bots, some students are not getting advice that considers all the circumstances, and perhaps more importantly, advice that can understand and anticipate the unintended consequences.
By the very function of its development
AI reinforces existing bias. When used in recruitment it shortlists applicants similar to those interviewed previously, missing minority and novel candidates. When used in assessment it is not capable of detecting when a student needs consideration due to a range of factors such as cultural background, race, language diversity, gender and more.
How is AI being used in your workplace and what is the impact? Tell your AI story – every story helps.
The best possible outcome would be collaborative processes to design AI from the ground up with the staff who understand the tasks that the system is trying to replicate being involved at all stages. The current requirement to consult when a decision has been made or when there is a proposal for change, is way too late for AI.
There are also major unresolved questions about transparency, the use of AI to monitor and assess performance, and ownership and privacy of employee data.
The current consultation processes and industrial regulations are not fit for purpose for introduction of AI systems
NTEU is an active participant in three current governmental processes on AI through three separate agencies.
Our work in those groups is informed by the Discussion Paper developed by a working group of NTEU members formed to investigate AI use in the sector. The working party engaged in widespread consultation and the use of focus groups to determine the use and impact of AI on members. You can read the Discussion Paper and some of our submissions on our website: nteu.info/AIstory.
SMASHING THE TABOO: WHY REPRODUCTIVE LEAVE IS A CRITICAL ENTITLEMENT
By Alison Barnes, NTEU National President
It’s hard to fathom that in 2024 periods and menopause remain a taboo subject.
But that’s the reality that is forcing so many of our colleagues to suffer in silence.
How many people who menstruate would feel comfortable having a conversation with a boss or colleague who has not experienced menstruation or the crippling period pain or menopausal symptoms that mean they need time off work?
It shouldn’t be a difficult conversation to have – but it is.
That’s why reproductive leave is a critical entitlement I’m proud the NTEU is fighting for.
The status quo is robbing our universities of vital staff, with menopausal people forced into early retirements.
Too many workers suffer in silence because society refuses to acknowledge the real and significant workplace impact of menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause.
These are not “personal issues” to be quietly endured. They are workplace issues.
Consider the reality.
Nearly 1 million Australians will experience endometriosis in their lifetime, a condition that can cause debilitating pain.
Up to 93% of menstruating people report painful periods, with many struggling to manage symptoms while working.
Around 25% of menopausal people endure debilitating symptoms, including hot flushes, insomnia, and joint pain, forcing some out of the workforce altogether.
The costs are staggering.
Menopause alone is estimated to strip $15 billion annually from workers’ earnings and superannuation, compounding the already yawning retirement savings gender pay gap.
An ACTU survey found only 13% of respondents felt their menstruation or menopause symptoms didn’t significantly affect their work.
Yet the same survey showed the pervasive stigma: workers hesitate to discuss these issues with colleagues or managers, especially in male-dominated environments.
Imagine being in agony from endometriosis or struggling with menopausal symptoms but feeling too ashamed to ask for time off.
It’s unacceptable that in 2024, this silence persists. Workers are suffering through pain, using up their personal leave, or leaving their jobs altogether.
The NTEU’s Women’s Action Committee (WAC), now celebrating its 30th anniversary, has long viewed menstruation, perimenopause and menopause as a workplace issue.
The WAC also sees achieving paid reproductive leave is an important driver of gender pay equity.
This year’s NTEU Women’s Conference, supported by the WAC and attended by delegates from around the country, also prioritised reproductive leave in its deliberations, framing it as both an industrial concern and as a means to improve gender equity.
Following on from the momentum of the NTEU Women’s Conference and with the support of the WAC, the NTEU’s National Council this year pledged to end this hidden crisis. Because 10 days personal leave per year simply doesn’t cut it for health issues around menstruation, perimenopause and menopause.
People should not be forced to use sick leave for reproductive health.
That’s why higher education awards and agreements should provide a minimum of 20 days paid reproductive leave a year –additional to personal leave.
And our union will advocate similar rights for all workers.
It should be a source of pride for all members that the NTEU is once again at the forefront of winning critical new entitlements.
Remember, NTEU members won the first-ever paid parental leave of up to 36 weeks.
NTEU members established same-sex spousal rights.
NTEU members have won gender affirmation leave across our sector.
Today these resonate far beyond our sector. And reproductive leave is no different.
NTEU members won our first menstrual leave entitlement in an agreement almost 20 years ago.
Since then, we’ve seen reproductive health leave in agreements at Charles Sturt University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Newcastle, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney and the Menzies Institute.
As we celebrate these hard-won gains we must also use them as a springboard for a national campaign.
The NTEU is leading the fight for reproductive leave, and we need the collective strength of our members to win.
This campaign is about creating workplaces where everyone can thrive.
We’re calling on all members to join this vital fight.
Whether it’s raising awareness at your workplace, pushing for reproductive leave provisions in enterprise agreements, or supporting our push for national legislative reform, your voice matters.
Together, we can break the silence and ensure reproductive health is treated as the workplace issue it truly is.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY AND JUSTICE
The NTEU has a long and proud history of promoting international solidarity and standing with higher education staff around the world in fighting for justice.
Throughout the more than 30 year history of the national union, the NTEU has been a key supporter of Education International, our global union federation.
In 2024, with so many of our colleagues and comrades around the world facing unfathomable horrors and crises, the NTEU has continued its proud tradition of international action.
Gaza
NTEU has joined with many others internationally to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, unrestricted access to humanitarian aid, and the lifting of the siege of Gaza.
At the Union’s National Council in October, a motion was passed supporting the institutional academic boycott of Israel.
This includes refusing any form of academic and cultural cooperation with Israeli (academic) institutions; advocating a comprehensive boycott of Israeli (academic) institutions nationally and internationally; and promoting divestment from Israel by international academic institutions.
It also pledged NTEU to work toward institutional condemnation of Israeli policies and supporting Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts.
NTEU supports the right of members to implement the institutional academic boycott of Israel within the principles and practices of academic and intellectual freedom.
NTEU calls on Australian universities to carry out a nation-wide audit of all university connections with the Israeli military and its suppliers, disclose findings publicly and move to end connections immediately; demand university managements cut their ties with the weapons industry and militaries in general, and commit to a long-term strategy of demilitarisation of the higher education sector.
The NTEU urges Australian universities to provide scholarships to Palestinian students and scholars, and commit to supporting the re-establishment of higher education in Gaza and investigate what practical measures they can take to do so.
The NTEU also called on Universities Australia to withdraw from the 2013 memorandum of
understanding between Israel and Australia on cooperation in higher education.
NTEU supported a National Day of Action in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine on October 23. This protested one year of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the escalation of genocidal violence, scholasticide and ethnic cleansing across Palestine.
We reiterated our previous statements condemning the Hamas attacks and our opposition to anti-semitism, noting that criticism of Israeli government actions or policies are not anti-semitic in and of themselves.
As part of this work, National Council passed a resolution condemning scholasticide.
Scholasticide is systemic destruction, in whole or in part, of the educational life of a national ethnic, racial or religious group, and generally intimately related to genocide. It is also related to epistemicide, destroying knowledge systems.
In Gaza, Israeli armed forces have killed at least 555 students and 100 academics, and destroyed all universities and 80 per cent or more of the schools. By January, this military had destroyed, damaged or looted at least 22 archives, museums, and libraries. The National Museum, with over 3,000 archaeological artifacts, was also blown up.
National Council also passed a motion stating that the NTEU condemns scholasticide as an attack on the fundamental rights of people to research, teach, learn and freely express themselves.
Argentina
Higher education in Argentina has been under attack since Javier Miliei was elected president last year.
In response, NTEU passed the following motion at National Executive as a direct result of working closely with the Argentinian higher education union.
‘NTEU stands in solidarity with La Federación Nacional de Docentes Universitarios (CONADU) and higher education workers and students in Argentina at the forefront of protests against the Milei Government’s neoliberal and authoritarian policies.
In particular, we are appalled by the government’s move to cuts of 30 per cent to higher education workers’ salaries.
We are also deeply troubled by the decision to not index university funding, resulting in an effective cut of a 70 per cent in the global budget for public universities in Argentina, and the specific defunding of the Universidad de Madres de Plaza de Mayo.
We call on the Argentinian Government to guarantee the normal functioning of the Universidad de Madres de Plaza de Mayo, and to respect the rights that are enshrined in Argentina’s laws and constitution.
We call on the Milei Government to respect worker rights. NTEU congratulates CONADU on their resistance and standing up for the principles of free accessible education in the face of a regressive, reactionary, and authoritarian government.’
Ukraine
The devastating war in Ukraine is on the brink of stretching into a third year following the February 2022 Russian invasion.
In a motion passed unanimously at National Council, the NTEU expressed solidarity with fellow education unionists in Ukraine in the face of the brutal and illegal invasion of the country by the Putin regime.
According to the Trade Union of Education and Science Workers of Ukraine (TUESWU), which, like the NTEU, is an affiliate of Education International, one in every seven education buildings in Ukraine have been destroyed since the start of the invasion and millions of students and education workers have been displaced.
At the same time, NTEU opposes the Ukrainian Government’s exploitation of martial law to impose policies that undermine basic worker and trade union rights, including undermining collective bargaining.
Trade unions are crucial to shaping a future democratic Ukraine that is free from violent conflict.
Myanmar
NTEU also called for the Australian Government to put further sanctions on Myanmar’s military junta after the reported execution of a woman and her husband in September.
According to human rights groups, Chan Myae Thu was the first woman executed since the 2021 military coup. She was killed alongside her husband Kaung Htet.
They were among five activists sentenced to death on May 18, 2023 during a closed-door hearing at Insein Prison.
Australian Academic Dr Sean Turnell was imprisoned alongside some of the democracy activists during his almost two years of detention in Myanmar, where he was an economics adviser to the government.
Australia secured his release in 2022, with the NTEU and wider union movement a key part of the campaign for his freedom.
NTEU National President Dr Alison Barnes said: “This murderous regime is executing people without even the slightest hint of justice. Some of the people on death row showed incredible generosity to Sean Turnell while he endured a horrific ordeal in Insein Prison. The NTEU condemns these unlawful killings in the strongest possible terms. I want to express our solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their human rights to peace, democracy and freedom. Our government should be putting maximum pressure on the junta by sanctioning state-owned businesses, including mining companies that are still allowed to trade with Australian firms.”
Read NTEU’s Statement on Scholasticide:
