“Lavishing University Funds:” Senator’s Allegations Against ANU Chancellor
Sarah McCrea
Posted On March 10, 2025
Written by Sarah McCrea
ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop has been accused of violating ANU Policy during the Senate Estimates on 27 February 2025. A number of ANU staff, including Vice Chancellor Genevieve Bell, were present.
The basis of these allegations that were made during the Senate Estimates were outlined earlier in the day in an article published by The Australian.
During the hearing, allegations were made that Chancellor Bishop had broken ANU policy by engaging the services of a consultancy firm, ‘Vinder Consulting,’ on behalf of ANU.
This was stated as a conflict of interest, as the firm was owned and operated by her business partner and former chief of staff, Murray Hansen. Further, it was alleged that Chancellor Bishop had hired two employees from her own consultancy firm to work as her staff at ANU.
At the Senate Estimates, Senator Tony Sheldon alleged that “Ms Bishop may have secretly engaged her former chief of staff as an external consultant,” referring to Murray Hansen and his company ‘Vinder Consulting.’
He further alleged that she had done so “without going through the proper procurement processes or disclosing those conflicts of interest.”
Senator Sheldon accused Chancellor Bishop of “lavishing university funds on political staffers and employees of her company,” when she had been “accusing university staff of being the cause of the ANU’s financial problems.”
In reply, ANU Vice Chancellor Genevieve Bell said:
“What the chancellor is doing in terms of the support she has is not unusual or out of bandwidth for the university.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, Senator Sheldon requested ANU provide copies of the contents of relevant conflict of interests declarations, and what was “tabled or not tabled about Vinder [Consultancy].”
On February 4th, an ANU spokesperson responded:
“The Chancellor has never engaged ‘Vinder Consulting’ to provide any service to ANU.”
“The ANU Communications team and their executives make determinations on the resourcing and any resultant procurements.”
“This team “on limited occasions” hired ‘Vinder Consulting’. The firm was engaged to ‘to provide specialist speech writing knowledge and skills that did not exist within the University.’”
According to the spokesperson, each employment of ‘Vinder Consulting’ was below the minor procurement threshold and so did not breach ANU Procurement Policy. From 2021-2024, the total cost of the consultancy was $35,000.
A second allegation made by Senator Sheldon was that Chancellor Bishop had employed two staff members of her private firm, ‘Julie Bishop & Partners’, to simultaneously work in her Chancellor’s office.
When contacted by Observer, an ANU spokesperson stated: “It is the long-standing practice for ANU Chancellors to have dedicated staff members and researchers to assist in the role.”
“There are controls in place to ensure there is no overlap with the Chancellor’s other activities for the staff, and both staff members report to and are accountable to the University Secretary.”
On the 27th of February, Senator Sheldon referenced Chancellor Bishop appearing before the Senate “at a future time.” However, it is uncertain if an external investigation into these allegations might occur, in light of these new statements provided by an ANU spokesperson.
More to come.
Graphics by Shé Chani
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