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The Guardian
a day ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Law professor at centre of leaked email controversy claims University of Melbourne suspended him because of his political opinion
A University of Melbourne law professor who claimed ''Blak' activists' were leading the prestigious institution to 'destruction' alleges he has been suspended because of his political opinion. Guardian Australia on Saturday revealed that Dr Eric Descheemaeker is suing Australia's top-ranked university for discrimination. The legal action comes after a 2023 email written by Descheemaeker to the then head of the Melbourne Law School (MLS) was leaked and posted around the university's Parkville campus last month. Descheemaeker alleged the University of Melbourne had taken adverse action against him by suspending his employment due to his 'political opinion', court documents show. Descheemaeker argued this is in contravention of section 351 of the Fair Work Act, which stipulates an employer must not take adverse action against an employee because of a range of attributes including a person's race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, religion or political opinion. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Descheemaeker alleged the university will terminate his employment because of his political opinion unless it is 'restrained from doing so'. The federal circuit and family court heard on Friday the university would not terminate Descheemaeker's employment or take any adverse action until his injunction application had been determined. Descheemaeker also alleged the university has breached section 340 of the legislation, which says a person must not take adverse action against another person because the other person has a workplace right or has, or has not, exercised a workplace right. Asked why the university has suspended Descheemaeker, a spokesperson referred to a previous statement by the dean of MLS, Prof Michelle Foster. 'Professor Descheemaeker is an employee of the university and it would be improper to comment on this employment matter,' Foster told Guardian Australia last week. Descheemaeker's leaked August 2023 email was sent in response to the announcement of an Indigenous cultural safety review at the university. MLS was 'celebrating the 'noble savage'', he wrote in the email, likening the law school to an 'ideological re-education camp'. Descheemaeker wrote that there was 'absolutely no end to where 'Blak' activists are meaning to take us – except destruction'. In an email sent to MLS staff last month, Foster said 'sensitive correspondence' from August 2023 had recently been posted on campus noticeboards and social media. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'I acknowledge that staff and students who read the notices may have been offended or upset by its contents,' Foster said in the email, viewed by Guardian Australia. Foster said the university had taken immediate steps to remove the correspondence and was investigating how it came to be posted on campus. 'I affirm my steadfast commitment to supporting a diverse, multi-cultural and multi-faith community.' She said she was committed to ensuring cultural safety at the MLS and supported the 'important work under way in this regard'. Last week, Descheemaeker's lawyer said their client was unable to comment at this stage. The interlocutory application will be heard on 9 September.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
World Court climate decision lights match under Australia's fossil fuel industry
A landmark outcome from the world's highest court this week has put major fossil fuel countries like Australia on notice, declaring they could be liable for reparations. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its advisory opinion this week, outlining that nations have an obligation to prevent climate change and listing potential legal consequences for continuing to make the crisis worse. It's been celebrated around the world as a historic turning point for the climate movement. It's also expected to unleash a new wave of climate litigation. Australia, one of the world's biggest fossil fuel exporters, is likely to face new legal scrutiny. "Under international law, it's huge for Australia. It's going to open us up to a lot more liability," said climate law specialist at the University of Melbourne's law school, Liz Hicks. "There could be claims for reparations brought against Australia. I think this is something that the government hasn't been taking seriously until now." The ICJ was tasked with determining what obligations countries have to protect the climate system for current and future generations, and what the consequences are of failing to do so. In a unanimous finding, the court determined that nations have an obligation under international law to prevent climate change — and that they may be liable to pay compensation if they fail to do so. But the 500-page opinion goes much further than that; it has been described as a blueprint for climate justice and a reckoning for those countries perpetuating the destabilisation of the planet. "The court has really met the moment in bringing all of those legal obligations and interpreting them in the climate reality, and the urgency of this kind of existential crisis for the entire world," Retta Berryman, climate lead and lawyer for Environmental Justice Australia (EJA), said. The ICJ's decision isn't binding for Australian courts, but its advice is considered highly influential and will inform legal arguments in cases back home. Under the Paris Agreement, the legal framework for climate action over the past decade, countries set their own targets for how they will reduce their domestic greenhouse gas emissions. Domestic. That's the critical word here. By only counting emissions released at home, fossil fuel exporters like Australia could brag about cutting down greenhouse gases whilst continuing to sell coal, oil and gas to international buyers, obligation-free. "What states like Australia — and many, many states — were arguing, was that the Paris Agreement was exhaustive of all our obligations," Melbourne Law School's Dr Hicks explained. "Our exports, the big contribution that we make to climate harms, fell outside of the Paris Agreement." The ICJ judges rejected that outright. They declared that supporting fossil fuels — by the production, the granting of fossil fuel exploration licences, and fossil fuel subsidies — constitutes an internationally wrongful act. For Australia, the potential ramifications can't be overstated. Australia produces about 1.1 per cent of global emissions. However, Australia is the world's largest coal exporter and a top gas exporter, and a UNSW study has concluded Australia is second globally for emissions from fossil fuel exports. When exports are taken into account, Australia makes up about 4.5 per cent of global emissions, the report found. Ella Vines, a climate law researcher at Monash University, said the ICJ ruling would put those emissions into sharper focus. "It's really significant that we can say that Australia should be responsible for its fossil fuel production even though it's consumed overseas. "A lot of the loopholes that Australia has tended to use to get out of liability are starting to get smaller and smaller," Dr Hicks said. The court took this a step further, stating that states are also responsible for regulating fossil fuel companies operating within their borders, which again exposes Australia to legal liability for its booming fossil fuel industry. In some instances, Australian taxpayers are already forking out for the rehabilitation costs once companies have finished digging up and selling their products. Now, they could also be paying for the climate pollution from that coal and gas. "The ICJ observed that a state's failure to regulate the activities of private actors may amount to a breach of that state's duty to exercise regulatory due diligence," Dr Vines said. The ICJ also shot down another argument used frequently in Australian climate court cases. It goes that no individual project — a gas plant or a coal mine — is responsible for climate change, as it is a cumulative problem, so there is no direct link between its emissions and climate harm. It was an argument used in court last year for the Living Wonders case, which was run by Environmental Justice Australia (EJA). "The judges of the ICJ, after hearing all of that evidence and reading all of the submissions, have confirmed that it is scientifically possible to determine a country's contribution to climate change," said EJA's Retta Berryman. "They've said they acknowledge that it's complex, but that it's not impossible. And notwithstanding the fact that climate change is caused by cumulative emissions, it's scientifically possible to determine each state's contribution." International law is not a perfect vehicle for justice, and a longstanding criticism has been its failure to be enforced. But Dr Hicks said that — again — the ICJ addressed this squarely by stating clearly that countries could be liable for penalties, including reparations, if they commit these "wrongful acts" of climate harm. "If there is no clear consequence to breaching [human rights], we are not as good at paying attention. Once you're talking about reparations being a possibility, or other forms of liability and consequences being in play, that is also going to change." The ICJ was asked to consider this issue by Vanuatu and other low-lying island states, which are suffering the consequences and costs of climate change, for which they bear little responsibility. On Friday, Vanuatu's special envoy on climate did not rule out launching litigation against large polluting countries like Australia. Any theoretical case could potentially be heard in the ICJ's dispute court. A spokesperson for the Australian government told the ABC it is carefully considering the court's opinion. "The unprecedented participation by other countries in the ICJ proceedings reflects that we're not alone in recognising the challenges and opportunities of responding to climate change. "…we remain steadfast in our commitment to working together with the Pacific to strengthen global climate action." International law may not be strictly enforceable, but ignoring it would also affect Australia's international, diplomatic and moral standing, if there were any case. One example of an international legal fight in the ICJ is Australia's case against Japan over its whaling program in Antarctica. Australia successfully argued that Japan was breaching international law, and Japan was ordered to stop the program. "I think it puts the Australian government on notice that the actions that it's taking — particularly connected with exports and downstream emissions — are opening it and future Australian publics and taxpayers up to liability," Dr Hicks said. This legal opinion comes as Australia finalises its 2035 emissions targets, which the ICJ opinion stressed must be its "highest possible ambition". EJA's Ms Berryman believes this legal advice sets out a road map for the federal government's response to climate change. "I think starting with setting a really ambitious target and then working towards a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels is really the only way to achieve compliance with the standards that the ICJ has set for the countries." Failure to do so could leave all Australians on the hook for the mounting costs of catastrophic climate change.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Bearded dragons fitted with special backpacks showed animals that moved fast, died young
It takes skill and patience to design a tiny bespoke backpack and fit it onto an Australian bearded dragon. But Kristoffer Wild regularly found himself doing just that during his PhD at the Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland. "I became a tailor during my PhD," the University of Melbourne ecologist joked. He'd measure the neck and chest of each lizard, before quickly setting up the sewing machine, cutting specially-designed material and stitching tiny, individually measured outfits. Dr Wild then wrangled the backpacks — which weighed about as much as an AAA battery — onto the Australian central bearded dragons (Pogona vitticeps). After the hour-long tailoring session, the lizards were set free sporting a new outfit stuffed with a GPS tracker, an accelerometer and a temperature tracker. "[The backpack records] every single second of what the animal is doing, and senses if it's accelerating forward, backward, up and down," Dr Wild said. The year-long study led to a wealth of data about how the lizards' temperature changed throughout the seasons, where they went and what they did. But of all the data — which has today been published in the Journal of Animal Ecology — one thing stood out. The speediest bearded dragons were the most likely to not survive to the end of the experiment. "We usually think animals that are faster are more likely to evade predation," Dr Wild said. Not only is this counterintuitive, but it goes against what prior research has found in the lab. So what is going on? Dr Wild and his team tracked 40 bearded dragons. Because the team lived close by, they could also quickly check on any lizards when there was a problem, or when they were eaten by a predator. "We could pinpoint the exact time of death and usually we could work out what caused it based off of how the carcass was left," Dr Wild said. At the end of the study, they found most of the bearded dragons were eaten in the spring, and females were much more likely than males to be eaten. "The males have to defend their territories, whereas the females have to hunker down and save all their energy for their eggs," he said. But why the speediest dragons were the most likely to die was — at first — a mystery. The Australian central bearded dragon is found throughout inland Australia, and at their largest can be up to 60 centimetres from tip to tail. Its beefy nature might explain some of the results, Dr Wild suggested. Because of their size, adult bearded dragons mostly use stealth, as opposed to speed to avoid predators. "What does a bearded dragon do when you see it in the field? They use their patterns to blend into the background," he said. This isn't the case for all lizards. Younger or smaller lizards instead try to use their speed to outrun a predator, but this makes them tasty targets. "Whereas when they're larger, they're relying more on blending into their environment." However, Martin Whiting, an animal behavioural researcher at Macquarie University who specialises in lizards, said although the paper was "valuable", larger sample sizes were needed to better understand survival in the wild. "We do predict that animals that can sprint faster have a greater chance of surviving in the wild," Professor Whiting said. "But this is still poorly understood, and this paper helps shake that paradigm a little." Although past research has shown in lab conditions that lizards that are faster are more successful, Professor Whiting said there hasn't been enough research to confirm that is actually the case. "What happens in nature is often not that black and white," he said. "There might be systems where being the fastest sprinter is good, like if you're an antelope and about to be eaten by a cheetah. And then there are other systems where you might need to be more cryptic." "You may not 'invest' in being a good sprinter." From getting a waterproof, smooth material made from a local outdoor company, to sewing the vests himself, Dr Wild did what he could to ensure the trackers didn't harm the animals. "We tracked the animals for a few days in a row just to make sure they were happy with the attachment, and they didn't get [stuck] on a fence or something. "It worked pretty great." But he also admits the vest isn't foolproof. "You do have to tell yourself, 'Yes, we are manipulating the animals' behaviour because we're putting tracking gear on it,'" he said. "But we're trying to minimise [the disruption] at all costs." This includes how long it takes to put the outfit onto a bearded dragon. "It's like putting a T-shirt on a toddler," he said. According to Dr Wild, at his best he could put the vest on a wriggling lizard in just a few seconds. And then, "once you get the T-shirt on, they're totally fine with it," he added. According to Professor Whiting, the "gold standard" for putting a tracker on almost any animal is for the tracker to weigh about 5 per cent of the creature's body weight. If the animal was human-sized, this could be anywhere in the region of 3 — 5 kilograms. Plenty of weight for a small tracker. But the smaller the animal, the harder it is to fit in the battery, sensors and anything else you might need without going over 5 per cent. An average bearded dragon female might be just 250 grams or so, meaning the whole kit needs to weigh under 12.5g. Smaller lizards are even harder to attach. "They are not that many studies where people attach this sort of technology to the animal and get this kind of data," Professor Whiting said. "It's true the technology is getting better. We're getting smaller batteries for example, but once you get a smaller battery, then it's going to run out faster as well." Dr Wild is looking to use this technology again in future research, and is optimistic about it being used on smaller and smaller species. "Five years ago, somebody would tell you you're absolutely crazy if you were going to put [a GPS tracker and accelerometer kit] on something smaller than a bearded dragon," he said. "But I was talking to somebody the other day, and they're putting accelerometers on little hatchling turtles to see how much movement they use when they're when they're hatching out of the nest."
SBS Australia
14-07-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Causes and consequences: Do we all have the capacity for hatred?
Nick Haslam, Professor of psychology from the University of Melbourne, told SBS Examines hatred often stems from a sense of "unfair victimisation that you've suffered, and there's not much you can do about it." People feel hatred in response to humiliations or maltreatment they think they've suffered at the hands of another personal group. "That drives an emotional state, which is often a chronic kind of anger or content or aggressiveness or hostility. And that motivates action, which is usually some sort of revenge or distancing or desire to see the people who you hate suffer in some way." Associate Professor Matteo Vergani, Director of the Tackling Hate Lab, says there's an evolutionary basis for prejudice — but we can "override emotional impulses". "Of course humans can resist hate," he said. This episode of SBS Examines: Understanding Hate looks at the psychological roots of hate, and the impact of extreme division in our society.
News.com.au
14-07-2025
- Science
- News.com.au
University of Melbourne forced to rehire professor Stephan Matthai who was sacked after ‘highly inappropriate' messages
A professor who was fired after he sent 'highly inappropriate' messages to a student at a top Australian university has been given his position back by the Fair Work Commission. University of Melbourne engineering professor Stephan Matthai was dismissed in December 2024 for a series of incidents in 2017 and 2018 in which he sent 'numerous intimate texts and emails' to a PhD student that he was supervising. The student went on to tell Dr Matthai that she loved him, which he did not reciprocate, however, the intimate messaging continued. The student later told another professor that she no longer wanted Dr Matthai as her supervisor and was reassigned without making a formal complaint. In January 2024, she contacted the university and alleged that Dr Matthai had sexually harassed her. The university investigated the matter and found there was no basis for the sexual harassment allegation, but Dr Matthai's messages were 'highly inappropriate'. In one interaction, Dr Matthai and the student discussed body types, and he sent a photo of himself in boxers – at the time he said it was to demonstrate that he was an ectomorph or skinny person. The student responded by asking: 'Can I love you German professor?' Dr Matthai replied: 'You do not need my permission, do you?' He told the university's external investigator that he sent the picture as he was feeling 'unworthy and abandoned' and needed some 'positive feedback'. The University of Melbourne considered the behaviour to be serious misconduct and dismissed the professor. While the Fair Work decision found that it was 'clear' that Dr Matthai's messages were inappropriate, it considered whether they were a valid reason for dismissal years after the offending. 'Nevertheless, I consider that it was harsh to dismiss Dr Matthai for misconduct that had occurred so long ago, in circumstances where he had maintained an unblemished record over the following seven years of his employment,' Deputy President Alan Colman found. 'In my view, the dismissal was unfair, and the appropriate remedy is for Dr Matthai to be reinstated.' The commission found that while Dr Matthai was not pursuing a romantic relationship with the student, he was going through a 'difficult' break-up with his then partner and wanted his 'close relationship' with the student to continue. 'Not everyone is willing to listen to the sorrows of the broken-hearted,' Mr Colman wrote in his decision. The university was instructed to reinstate Dr Matthai to his position immediately and pay him more than $28,000 for lost income during his period of dismissal. The Fair Work Commission orders, handed down on Monday, July 7, made clear the reinstatement must happen within 14 days. In a statement, the University of Melbourne said it was considering an appeal of the ruling, with a spokesperson saying the university was 'disappointed' in the decision. 'The university is considering its options to appeal the decision and will not comment further on this matter at this time,' they said.
