University ignores lessons of the past

Posted on 5:14 pm, May 29, 2020 by Henry Ergas

Today in The Australian


Fifty years ago this month, 200,000 people marched through Australia’s cities in the first ­Vietnam moratorium. The period leading up to the demonstrations had been tumultuous on campuses across the country, including at the University of Queensland. ­Already by 1967, opposition to conscription had merged there with protests against the state ­government’s restrictions on civil liberties, unleashing an escalating tide of agitation.

About Henry Ergas

Henry Ergas AO is a columnist for The Australian. From 2009 to 2015 he was Senior Economic Adviser to Deloitte Australia and from 2009 to 2017 was Professor of Infrastructure Economics at the University of Wollongong’s SMART Infrastructure Facility. He joined SMART and Deloitte after working as a consultant economist at NECG, CRA International and Concept Economics. Prior to that, he was an economist at the OECD in Paris from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. At the OECD, he headed the Secretary-General’s Task Force on Structural Adjustment (1984-1987), which concentrated on improving the efficiency of government policies in a wide range of areas, and was subsequently Counsellor for Structural Policy in the Economics Department. He has taught at a range of universities, undertaken a number of government inquiries and served as a Lay Member of the New Zealand High Court. In 2016, he was made an Officer in the Order of Australia.
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8 Responses to University ignores lessons of the past

  1. stackja
    #3467363, posted on May 29, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    Universities now are outdated.

  2. Ubique
    #3467368, posted on May 29, 2020 at 5:39 pm

    Student protests against communism or any form of socialism have long been vigorously opposed by university administrations. UQ has just stepped it up a notch or two.

  3. Rafe Champion
    #3467373, posted on May 29, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    The people who were marching to support the Viet Kong and the North Vietnamese invasion of the South now run the universities.

  4. rickw
    #3467395, posted on May 29, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    Useful idiots.

    The cost and risk of the Vietnam War effectively put an end to the USSR’s forays into SE Asia.

  5. OldOzzie
    #3467457, posted on May 29, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    Let us see – who does this describe from Henry’s Article

    Nor is it to gloss over the grievous faults of the students and staff who regularly packed the “forum” at St Lucia, as the campus’ main meeting ground was called. They were, on the contrary, blind to the crimes of the North Vietnamese and ignored the horrors their victory would bring.

  6. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
    #3467467, posted on May 29, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    They were, on the contrary, blind to the crimes of the North Vietnamese and ignored the horrors their victory would bring.

    You mean all wasn’t peace and lurve after the “liberation” of South Vietnam?

  7. duncanm
    #3467717, posted on May 30, 2020 at 5:19 am

    So – he’s been suspended for 2 years, with the Chancellor Varghese promising a review next week, because he’s ‘personally concerned’.

    https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3086748/australian-student-who-led-anti-beijing-protests-suspended

  8. kae
    #3468509, posted on May 30, 2020 at 6:14 pm

    Hoj has stepped in stating that he finds the punishment severe.

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