UOW Council should quit. If not, sack them, says whistleblower
Confidence lost, push for reform grows
The woman whose submission to a NSW parliamentary inquiry helped expose governance failures at the University of Wollongong - before ICAC opened its own investigation - is now calling for the entire UOW Council to resign.
Lisa Simmons, who chaired UOW’s WHS Committee and is a former Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) NSW delegate, argues the Council has “lost the confidence of the University community” following three weeks of evidence at ICAC’s Operation Scandi inquiry which investigated governance and recruitment issues at the university.
“If Council members decline to resign, the NSW Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, and other relevant authorities should take all steps available to remove or replace them,” Ms Simmons said.
She’s not alone either as her online petition, launched over the weekend, already has 200+ signatories. Ms Simmons organised a petition before the ICAC inquiry began, calling for the chancellor to stand aside. The day after it was published, Mr Still stood aside as Chancellor, before resigning his position permanently on July 3.
Ms Simmons also called for an immediate halt to any process to appoint a new Chancellor until the “integrity, independence, competence and fitness” of current Council members had been independently examined.
Corporate governance standards
“The UOW Act requires Council members to act honestly and exercise a reasonable degree of care and diligence,” Ms Simmons said, citing section 2a.2.
“Evidence aired at the ICAC inquiry raised questions about the integrity of Council appointments made since late 2023, when Michael Still was appointed Chancellor.” She noted a 2023 governance review had found UOW “well above” required corporate governance standards shortly before his appointment.
Evidence at both ICAC and the NSW Upper House inquiry outlined that the operations of the Council were inconsistent with the procedures outlined in its handbook, Ms Simmons said.
“Responsibility for an accurate record rests with the whole of council, not governance staff alone,” she said.
Ms Simmons also criticised a Council statement issued after Mr Still’s resignation thanking him for his role in the university’s “transformation strategy”, saying this was issued despite Council already knowing the extent of material handed to the Commission.
She called on the state government to intervene “with haste,” saying the CPSU and National Tertiary Education Union had been the “principal organised bodies” seeking to hold UOW’s governance and management to account, and should have a central role in any rebuild of the university’s governing body, alongside staff, students, alumni and the wider community.
The petition comes days after ICAC’s inquiry adjourned. The watchdog examined allegations that former governance officer Alyssa White and others subverted recruitment processes; that Mr Still improperly awarded work to consulting firm Aspirall Consulting, and that UOW mismanaged conflicts of interest around appointing interim Vice-Chancellor John Dewar, a former KordaMentha partner, given the university’s engagement of that firm.
Commissioner Paul Lakatos is expected to hand down his final, public report to the NSW Parliament at the end of August.
ICAC has made no findings in Operation Scandi. All named individuals are subject to allegations at a public inquiry.
