To:

The Hon. Daniel Mookhey
Treasurer of New South Wales

The Hon. Steve Whan
Minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education

Public confidence in the financial management of our universities has been seriously shaken.

Recent parliamentary inquiries and reporting by Four Corners have exposed conflicting evidence, opaque decision-making, and major job and course cuts justified on the basis of financial claims that have not been transparently tested.

Staff, students and the community are entitled to clear answers about what is really driving these decisions and whether they are supported by reliable evidence. At present, those answers are not available.

That is why we are calling on the New South Wales Government to act now to restore transparency, accountability and public trust in the governance of our universities.

We need two immediate actions.

First, we call on you to support independent performance audits across the university sector, conducted by the Audit Office of New South Wales, to determine what is truly driving job and course cuts. Universities subject to these audits should meet the cost of the audit themselves.

Second, we call on you to update the NSW Treasury Reporting Directions to require greater transparency in annual reporting, including disclosure of consultant expenditure, labour-hire usage, and the workforce impacts of restructuring decisions.

These two actions—independent performance audits and stronger reporting transparency—are necessary to establish the facts and restore public trust.

Consultants are making huge profits advising universities to cut jobs and courses, providing a veneer of professionalism and justification for the actions management is all too ready to take. Their data is unreliable, they’ve infested almost every council and board and they’re protected from scrutiny by their work being ‘commercial in confidence’.

The draft Audit Office report into the Australian National University has found that there was no evidence to support the cuts to jobs and courses they pursued. We have no confidence there’s evidence for the cuts pursued across the sector.

The NSW Inquiry and the reporting of Four Corners have demonstrated consultants and university management are unreliable and untrustworthy witnesses and reinforced the need for external scrutiny. Evidence given to parliamentary inquiries has shifted, contradicted earlier statements, or relied on data that could not be independently verified.

Former NTEU University of Wollongong Branch President Professor Fiona Probyn-Rapsey summed up the problem clearly in reference to the consultants KordaMentha:

“They had poor quality data when it came to the workforce, when it came to workloads, and when it came to the reliance on casual staff, and they note in their own report that despite cleaning efforts, they still can’t really stand by the quality of the data,” Professor Probyn-Rapsey said.

“So, does this prevent KordaMentha from coming up with massive recommendations for job losses across the institution? No.”

Whether it’s KPMG denying they had UTS laptops, endless conflicting answers about consultant access to internal data, or shifting explanations about the appointment of senior executives drawn directly from consulting firms, we know that their word and assurances cannot be relied upon. The threat of criminal prosecution for misleading a parliamentary inquiry does not appear to have ensured consistent or reliable disclosure.

Public universities are funded by taxpayers and exist to serve students and communities. Decisions about jobs, courses and services must therefore be transparent, evidence-based and accountable.

Independent performance audits and stronger reporting transparency are essential to restoring staff, student and community confidence in the financial management of our universities.

We urge the New South Wales Government to act now.