One of the architects of the Liberal-aligned Robert Menzies Institute at the University of Melbourne says the centre’s current board would be improved by a member with ties to the Labor Party.
The intervention comes amid a campaign from students and academics to prevent the institute being housed in the university’s Old Quad.
Melbourne University stock image.Credit:Wayne Taylor
Tom Harley, a former chairman of the Liberal-backed think tank Menzies Research Centre, said he was confident the institute he proposed to then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2015 would operate in a non-partisan fashion.
He said the Menzies Institute was initially modelled on the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University and should consider replicating that organisation’s approach of including someone with an opposing political background in a leadership position. The Whitlam Institute board is chaired by former Labor senator John Faulkner, but includes former NSW Liberals leader Peter Collins.
“I would’ve thought it would be good to have someone else that came from some other part of the political spectrum, to make it relatively bipartisan,” said Mr Harley, who secured $7 million in federal funding for the institute in 2017.
“It wouldn’t have given me a problem if there was a thoughtful person from the Labor Party on the board.”
John Roskam, executive director of right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, which is represented on the board, said opposition to the institute was being led by a minority of “left-wing” students who wanted to shut down debate in a sign of the “cancer affecting our schools and universities.”
“Students at the University of Melbourne should be welcoming this with open up arms,” Mr Roskam said.
An open letter against the institute, set to open in September as a library and research hub that will host public lectures, has garnered about 450 signatures from students and academics.
They argue its political links will prevent it from maintaining critical and impartial debate.
It was the brainchild of the Liberal Party-backed Menzies Research Centre, which nominated conservative commentator Peta Credlin and IPA chairman Geoffrey Hone as its two board members.
The University of Melbourne appointed two people to the board: Business School dean Ian Harper and pro vice-chancellor Su Baker. It will be chaired by former Qantas chief Leigh Clifford and former Howard government minister David Kemp will be deputy chair.
Whitlam Institute executive director Leanne Smith said its board “always wanted to have that bipartisanship because it helps our work be more effective”.
“Having a bipartisan board helps me to say ‘this won’t fly’, ‘you’ve got that wrong’, and to understand that political landscape, particularly after several years of Coalition government,” Ms Smith said of the institute named after the former Labor PM.
“It’s been of great value to me as a director to have people not just from both sides of politics but with a diversity of all backgrounds in guiding our work.”
Ms Smith said the Whitlam Institute had “no formal relationship with the Labor Party”.
“Since I started here in 2017 the board has sought to keep itself arm’s length from the day-to-day of politics and my instructions have been the same,” she said. “We are about honouring a legacy and widening public policy debate.”
Melbourne University student union president Jack Buksh said “universities should be about debate and the contest of ideas … to say that the Menzies Institute – backed by its big brother, Liberal Party-aligned Menzies Research Centre and headed by an ex-Liberal Party candidate and Peta Credlin – will be a critical and impartial output at a university is laughable.
Former diplomat Georgina Downer has been appointed as the inaugural director of the Robert Menzies Institute at Melbourne UniversityCredit:Wayne Taylor
“This is a political outfit using public money to influence research at a public institution.”
Menzies Institute executive director Georgina Downer said all six members were “extremely high calibre”.
“Each one of them is absolutely committed to making sure the institute meets its objectives as written in its constitution,” said Ms Downer, a two-time Liberal candidate.
Ms Credlin was chief of staff to then prime minister Tony Abbott and is now a News Corp commentator, including for Sky News, while Mr Hone’s IPA is an active conservative think tank.
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