By Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has more to worry about at the moment than the Chinese armada the hawkish think tank insists will be upon us any day now.
And with former Department of Foreign Affairs boss Peter Varghese due to complete his review of “Commonwealth funding for strategic policy work” within weeks, we’d be nervous too.
Senator James Paterson put in a good word for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
After all, we brought word this month of the demise of the China Matters think tank, which was doomed by the decision of the Morrison government, which had no time for the think tank’s “nuanced” approach to relations with the emerging superpower, to cut funding.
Strategic Policy Institute executive director Justin Bassi – a captain’s pick by Peter Dutton to lead the institute after working for Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull, defence minister Marise Payne and attorney-general George Brandis – wrote in the dear old Canberra Times on Anzac Day that reports of his organisation being targeted by Chinese hackers proved the institute was a vital bulwark for Australian democracy.
“Even if you dislike us, it’s gravely concerning,” Bassi wrote, acknowledging perhaps that the tough-guy approach to China is right out of fashion in government circles.
But the institute is not without friends. Just last week Liberal home affairs spokesman James Paterson wrote directly to Varghese urging the former mandarin not to “hand China a win” by stripping the institute of any of the $4 million it gets each year from the Defence Department , and there’s been a steady drumbeat of opinion writing in the US-owned broadsheet The Australian in defence of the think tank.
Bassi himself was talking a confident game on Sunday, telling CBD that the institute’s “data-driven research and evidence-based analysis” should see it right.
“We’ve contributed to defence and national security debates that protect Australia’s interests and sovereignty, and we are therefore confident we will continue to be supported,” Bassi said.
That’s the spirit!
He didn’t try to claim a performance bonus in 2023, but we reckon if he can fight a rear-guard action in defence of his operation’s funding, he should try his luck this year.
UNI LEAVER
Amid the well-publicised travails of the University of Melbourne, where campus unrest has prevented the inauguration of chancellor Jane Hansen for nearly a year now, the shenanigans down the road at RMIT University have flown kinda below the radar.
RMIT staff have been out on strike, exasperated that vice chancellor Alec Cameron’s management team has not made an EBA pay offer, two years after the National Tertiary Education Union lodged its log of claims.
That’s not to suggest that the 13-strong executive team have been idle; the uni’s bosses have found time to take the totally normal and not at all weird step of punishing students for supporting the industrial action of their lecturers and to drag the union into the Fair Work Commission – full bench, if you please – in an unsuccessful effort to stop the strikes.
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To add to his woes, Cameron seems to be having a spot of bother keeping his executive suites fully staffed; chief financial officer Clare Lezaja, deputy vice chancellor Julie Cogin, pro vice chancellor Claire Macken and chief operating officer Teresa Finlayson have all taken off for greener pastures in recent months.
Of course you might argue that Cameron could spare a deputy vice chancellor or two – he’s got seven of them.
When we asked what was going on – and you’re going to enjoy this – a spinner told us that “RMIT is proud to have talented senior leaders who are highly sought-after in the sector”.
Bravo, we say! Whoever came up with that one should definitely be more highly sought-after.
While we’re here, the university also says that: “Bargaining of this duration is commonplace across the sector and it is not unusual for legal issues to arise during the process.”
Oh, and those student punishments? “Isolated incidents,” according to the uni, which were not repeated.
WAGE RAGE
Melbourne businessman Julian Smith appears to be a socially aware kind of chap.
The “tech entrepreneur and libertarian”, who is planning to open a Japanese onsen-style hot springs venture in the Yarra Valley, says he believes in civil rights, economic empowerment and poverty alleviation.
So it’s a little awkward that the Federal Court imposed more than $21,000 in penalties on Smith and his software venture Melbourne Digital last week after it underpaid tens of thousands of dollars in entitlements and superannuation of four of its workers, including temporary migrants from India and Pakistan, and then failed to act on official warnings to repay them.
Judge Jonathan Forbes also ordered the company to repay its workers, with interest. His honour noted the contraventions of workplace laws were deserving “of significant penalty”.
Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Michael Campbell said the case was a warning to employers that ignoring warnings from the workplace authority was likely to make matters worse for themselves.
Smith told us on Sunday that the firm’s lawyers were reviewing the court’s decisions. He said Melbourne Digital was committed “to not only complying with all regulations but also to learning and growing from this case.”
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