The motto of the University of Wollongong (UOW) promises “Personalised Experiences: World Class Results”. It would do well to tell the public which persons in the institution availed themselves of the experience of authorising political donations of $26,175 in the last four years, and what world class results they expected.
The signature on contribution donations in 2009 was the university’s director of government relations, Canio Fierravanti, brother of Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.
Coincidentally, 82% of the donations since late-2010 have gone to the Liberal Party.
UOW is reported as saying that the donations to the Liberal Party are “simply a result of the fact over this period that invitations from the Coalition far outweighed invitations from Labor”.
The Liberal Party donations included those for events coordinated in the electorate of Bradfield in Sydney’s upper north shore, and events for both Joe Hockey and Christopher Pyne when they were in opposition.
Functions held for the Liberal state MP for Kiama, Gareth Ward, whose staff member Paul Ell now serves on the university council, raised $1500 in the past two years.
The university’s top three donations in 2012-13 were for dinners with Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey and a boardroom dinner with Christopher Pyne. They must have been rather lavish affairs with a steady supply of shiraz, coming at a total cost of $6400.
A UOW spokesperson was reported as saying that attendance at public events was dependent on “the relevance of the speaker and the topic to the university”.
If this is so, UOW might care to explain why it donated $800 for a lunch with former NSW Liberal Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher, who resigned 15 months ago and is under investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption for alleged electoral funding irregularities.
University of Queensland Professor of electoral law Graham Orr was reported as saying that the donations appeared to be corporate networking contributions to buy access to ministers.
National Tertiary Education Union President Jeannie Rea said she was astounded to hear of donations made to political parties. She said: “Universities are public institutions and publicly-funded institutions, and politicians are already well paid on the public payroll, it’s their duty to attend to universities.”
This goes to the heart of this scandalous matter: the funds that UOW gave to the Liberal Party are not theirs to give away. They are funds from the public purse dedicated to the tertiary education needs of enrolled students.
But it seems that somebody at the university acted on the observation that the corporate culture of the institution is not complete without corporate donations dedicated to the consumption of fine food and wine and dalliances with posturing politicians.
The Liberal Party, and any other political party that has received taxpayers’ funds allocated for educational purposes, should immediately return those funds with interest.
UOW might then allocate the $26,175 to a research project on corporate governance from which the university hierarchy could benefit.
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