ANU vice-chancellor distances herself from Julie Bishop over staff cuts
The ANU's financial mismanagement could cost up to 600 jobs, with council promising a "smaller" university going forward.
Australian National University (ANU) vice-chancellor Genevieve Bell has distanced herself from chancellor Julie Bishop over imminent job cuts, saying she would “never view my staff as inefficiencies”.
Mismanagement has left the ANU scrambling to cut $100 million spent annually on staff salaries, which the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) estimates could cost more than 600 jobs.
Bell fronted Senate estimates on Thursday evening, weeks after Bishop – the former foreign minister – sparked a war of words with the union by claiming staff were partly responsible for the university's financial struggles.
Defending Bell urging employees to forgo a scheduled 2.5% pay rise, Bishop told The Canberra Times that “many members of staff have been part of the inefficiencies that the university is now seeking to address”. The comments prompted an immediate backlash from the NTEU, which accused her of attempting to shift blame and called for her to resign.
