Australian universities face a tough task upholding free speech rights in an overly “politicised” environment, according to Western Sydney University (WSU) vice-chancellor and leading constitutional lawyer George Williams.
“The world has now turned” since the country’s universities were obliged to adopt a “very open and very liberal”?model code for freedom of speech, Williams told a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute thinktank.
University has “got to be a place where we avoid groupthink and people feel free to explore and express ideas…[but] with hate speech and other things, we need to clamp down and draw lines”, he said. “This is a very contested area, very hard to navigate, because free speech itself – as a barrister I’ve seen this – you can’t define it.
“When it becomes politicised…there’s so many grey areas. You can do your best. You can make good decisions. But where there’s an attempt to overtly politicise things, you’re on a hiding to nothing.”
Williams said a human rights act, which Australia lacks, would help resolve “these really tricky” issues. “The absence of clarity about human rights means…there is no standard in the law we can apply. You’ve got 42 unis doing their own things with their policies.
“As a nation…we should have a clear commitment to freedom of speech. It should be written into the law. We would comply with it, as any public sector organisation would, and it would also give a mechanism to resolve these things in fair and appropriate ways.”
He said many Australians incorrectly believed that their country had a bill of rights enshrining freedom of speech, along with US-style protections against self-incrimination. “As a nation, we actually don’t prioritise freedom of speech and yet it’s so politicised,” he said.
“It’s not protected in any general and meaningful way. At best, we have this implied freedom of political communication, which…is very rarely applied. The absence of protection is telling in the vast number of laws we’ve had passed nationally that directly target freedom of speech. If you reveal secrets, even in the public interest – even revealing the potential for corruption – you can be jailed for doing so. The?New York Times?called us maybe?.”
Williams said WSU was reviewing its policies around investments in industries that conflicted with its academics’ advocacy. But as a university leader, he needed to balance a “clear ethical framework” with respect for academic freedom.
“I’m not going to impose, I suppose, a generalised sense on staff to say, ‘This is who you work with’, or ‘This is who you don’t’. There are many, many grey areas.”
Asked about the??during an October demonstration against university links with weapons manufacturers, Williams said he supported protest and had often represented activists in court. “We didn’t invite the police, but we will cooperate with them fully.”
He said he had offered students training for future campaigns. “Protest is welcome, but it’s got to be within reasonable bounds. How can you do it safely? If the police turn up, how do you navigate that? How can you get your point across vigorously and loudly without getting in trouble?
“We want an active campus, but people have got to be doing it safely for themselves and people around them.”
