Topics: Universities, indoctrination, anti-Semitism, ABC impartiality, WA election result, federal election.
Ben Fordham: About students who are being forced to pass woke tests that have nothing to do with their actual studies. For example, a student studying creative writing was forced to see tests about sustainability and Aboriginal culture, and students were told, and I quote, if you’re living in Australia and you are not an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. You are a settler. Another student from Macquarie University, studying teaching, was forced to participate in a humiliating activity. All students were asked to put up their hands. The lecturer then said Indigenous students can put their hands down. Students born overseas can put their hands down. Everyone else was told you are a guest in Australia. Students tell us these woke modules have to be completed before they can get access to their study material. Macquarie University claims they are not compulsory, but we’ve seen a screenshot from a professor saying they are mandatory and they’re in damage control at Macquarie University. In a statement provided to 2GB breakfast late last week, Macquarie University says completing the module is not compulsory to access course materials. Our online systems have not made this clear enough. Well, obviously, because everyone thinks they have to do it, and if you look at the website, it makes it look like you’ve got to do it before you can proceed. Senator Sarah Henderson is the Shadow Education Minister. She’s live in the studio this morning. Sarah Henderson, good morning to you.
Senator Henderson: Good morning to you, Ben, great to join you.
Ben Fordham: We are trying to get answers out of the vice-chancellor, Professor Bruce Dowton, and he’s been away, and apparently he’s going to be back soon. They’ve got to front up and answer some questions on this, don’t they?
Senator Henderson: Well, Ben, I think this is all part of what we are seeing in our universities, decaying standards, and frankly, the government hasn’t thrown the book at universities enough. We saw shocking weakness of leadership, particularly with the antisemitism that we’ve seen on university campuses. Record levels of international students coming into this country, which haven’t been managed and no word at all from the Education Minister Jason Clare about these declining standards. If you enroll in a course you expect to do that course. And I do think if these additional mandatory units are being imposed on students, then this is a matter for the regulator. If we are elected, if Peter Dutton and the Coalition is elected, hopefully, very soon, in a number of weeks time, then I will be asking the regulator to look at this, because I just don’t think it’s good enough.
Ben Fordham: Do you think it’s right that students are told, if you’re living in Australia and you are not an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, you are a settler?
Senator Henderson: No, that is absolutely appalling, and it is part of the concern that we’ve been raising as an opposition for a considerable period of time. The classroom is for education, not indoctrination. We are seeing so many examples of creeping indoctrination and activism in education settings. I have to say, Ben, there was a father who wrote to me, his daughter, who was in preschool, went to the beach for an excursion. She bent down to pick up a shell, and the teacher said, don’t pick up that shell that doesn’t belong to you. You’re on stolen country.
Ben Fordham: Oh god, that’s in what the kindergarten or primary school or something?
Senator Henderson: That was in preschool.
Ben Fordham: And in high school, that happens, we know. And in universities, you would think by university age that people would be old enough to make up their own mind about what they think, what they believe in. They’ve already learned about indigenous culture through primary school and high school, but here they are, and they get this stumbling block, which essentially, when you go to the website, it looks like you cannot proceed until you do this stuff, and people have been marked down for not putting up an acknowledgement of country at the start of one of their their studies. You’ve got people who want to become physiotherapists or creative writers or teachers who are being told you’ve got to go through this stuff first. And what about the humiliating activity where everyone’s got their hand up and the lecturer says, Okay, if you were born overseas, put your hands down. If you’re Aboriginal, put your hands down everyone else. You’re a guest in this country. It’s a shame session. Okay? So just repeat for us, if elected the Coalition will do What?
Senator Henderson: Yeah, that’s disgraceful. And we’ve seen from the Voice of course, that Australians do not want to be divided on race, and the fact that this is happening in lecture theatres is really disgraceful. There is no room in university courses for these mandatory units. I actually studied indigenous law and culture, and that was a very important part of my law degree. So where it’s relevant and material, of course, that’s first and foremost. But where these courses are being done just to basically sign people up so that they are eligible to begin their course, it’s just not good enough.
Ben Fordham: What I think should have been done now, not wait until we are elected, but this does need to be referred to the regulator. University students, they go to university to learn not to be indoctrinated. And if this is an attempt by university, or more than one university, to indoctrinate students, then that is not good enough. There is no room in universities or classrooms or schools for indoctrination. We’ve been very clear about that. I mention as well that James Cook University, La Trobe University, Charles Sturt University, Griffith University, we’re getting complaints about you, too. Sarah Henderson is with us in the studio the Shadow Minister for Education. You’re also a former ABC journalist, there is a new boss at the ABC starting today, Hugh Marks. He used to run Channel Nine. He’s taken over the top job at the ABC from David Anderson. What’s your advice to the new boss at the ABC?
Senator Henderson: Well, I wish him all the very best. I would ask him to look at Section 8 of the ABC Act, which requires the board to comply with its obligations to ensure that all news and information is impartial and objective and accurate, and that’s very, very important too many times. And we’ve seen the ABC really slip. I was at the ABC for nine years. I have a lot of regard for the ABC as an institution, but it really has gone backwards. I’ve been prosecuting the case in Senate estimates over many years now. We’ve seen so many examples of the ABC not complying with its own editorial policies. And I really wish Hugh Marks all the very best. I’m sure he will do better.
Ben Fordham: Yeah, we’ve also got to do something about the spending on lawyers at the ABC. We saw the Heston Russell case, I know you were very passionate about that. We’ve got the Antoinette Lattouf case that’s going through the courts at the moment, and so many embarrassing examples, Sarah Henderson, of the ABC spending millions of dollars of taxpayers money fighting cases that they’re likely to lose.
Senator Henderson: That’s right, the Lattouf case when I was asking about this in estimates at least $1.1 million, Heston Russell was in excess of $3 million. It really is completely mismanaged, not good enough. And let’s not forget, this is taxpayers’ money, Ben. I mean, we’ve seen this government just trash taxpayers money, left, right and centre. This is something that we take very seriously, Peter Dutton and the Coalition take very seriously, whether it’s, the ABC or any other institution, whether it’s the Australian Research Council, which is also wasting money. Taxpayers dollars are precious. It is the job of governments to safeguard that money. And frankly, it is not good enough that the minister, Michelle Rowland has not thrown the book at the ABC for wasting so much money on lawyers and everything else.
Ben Fordham: We’re all trying to guess the election day, I was just talking about May 3. Maybe May 3 won’t happen because that’s magic round for the NRL. You’ve got, May 10 or May 17. May 10 may be an issue. A few of my listeners are pointing out it’s Mother’s Day the following day, Sunday, May 11. I suppose you can still have an election on the Saturday and then go and then celebrate Mother’s Day on the Sunday. Are we getting closer to working out when we’re going to the polls?
Senator Henderson: Well, all I can say is, we are ready. We are working very, very hard. We very much hope that Australians will back Peter Dutton and the Coalition. We cannot afford a minority Greens, Teals, Labor government that would send this nation back, Ben. It is probably the most important election in my living memory, in most people’s living memory, we cannot see this country go backwards. That’s why it’s so important, whatever the date, to vote for Peter Dutton and the Coalition on election day.
Ben Fordham: Not a great result for the Liberals in WA over the weekend.
Senator Henderson: Look, there were some green shoots and there were some significant swings. Frankly.
Ben Fordham: Green shoots?
Senator Henderson: A seven percent swing to the Libs. If that had happened nationally, of course we would have a change of government. Yes, it’s a long mountain to climb, in the West. I don’t understate that, but I have to say there were certainly some significant swings, an 18% swing, all the same against Labor, is a very, very significant message from the people of West that they’ve had enough. And certainly I can see across this nation, Ben, Australians have had enough. We cannot afford three more years of labour.
Ben Fordham: The problem for your party is that people are turning away from Labor, but they’re not turning to you.
Senator Henderson: Well, I don’t know about that.
Ben Fordham: Half of them are turning elsewhere.
Senator Henderson: Yeah, and I agree there’s certainly some support for the independents and the Greens, but in this federal election, I think most Australians know that if we have a minority greens, Labor government, it will be chaos. We have an extreme left Prime Minister already. Just imagine if the Greens were in charge. I mean, they may even be sitting around the Cabinet table. It is too frightening. This is an extreme party that wants to send our country off the cliff. I mean, they are an antisemitic party. They are a dangerous party. We cannot afford to jeopardise our future with this sort of arrangement.