Universities say foreign veto bill erodes autonomy

An inquiry has heard that the Morrison government’s proposed foreign veto laws are so broadly worded that universities may be required to hand over thousands of pages of documents every year to be checked, writes Daniel Hurst for The Guardian Australia.

Universities have also complained the legislation is so “extraordinarily wide” that it allows the foreign affairs minister to cancel agreements with international counterparts that may go against Australia’s foreign policy, even if that policy isn’t written down anywhere, publicly available or formally decided.

In one of the most strongly worded submissions to an ongoing Senate inquiry into the proposal, the University of Western Australia (UWA) said it had grave concerns about the bill, which should not be passed in its current form. UWA said institutional autonomy was “a central element of the free and vigorous higher education system which is essential to our economic and scientific progress and cultural enrichment”.
Full report on The Guardian Australia site