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Several universities say The Daily Telegraph and a right-wing think tank “selectively misquoted” a school document to make it falsely appear as if students and staff were “banned” from “disagreeing with Indigenous people”. 

The claim was contained in an exclusive Telegraph story last week based on a study by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) that claimed most Australian universities were “hostile to free speech”.

Crikey can reveal that none of the universities criticised were afforded a chance to respond by the IPA or Telegraph, that many of the story’s claims are misleading, and that some of the guidelines the article decried as undermining free speech are consistent with News Corp Australia’s own staff policies. 

“Free speech is dying on Australian university campuses — with bizarre woke policies such as bans on disagreeing with Indigenous people, using upper case letters or uttering simple words like ‘man’ fuelling the decline, a new audit has found,” the article began. 

The study’s author, IPA research fellow Brianna McKee, included a list of examples of university policies that the Telegraph framed as a “crackdown on campus debate”. 

Number one on the list: “At Central Queensland University (CQU), a protocol says that ‘direct verbal confrontation’ and ‘expressing disagreement’ with Indigenous people should be avoided to ‘preserve consensus’.”

But a CQU spokesperson explained in a statement to Crikey that the IPA had misquoted the protocol. 

“The IPA and Daily Telegraph have selectively misquoted from [the university’s] ‘Engaging and Communicating with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander or First Nations People Protocol’,” they said.

“In context, the protocol outlines a number of helpful considerations for communicating with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. It states that ‘Direct verbal confrontation is unsettling for most people’ (not culturally specific) and advises that ‘expressing disagreement may be avoided’ by some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ‘to preserve consensus’ (a statement which is intended as advice around cultural norms, not an edict for staff or students).”

Like every other university mentioned in the story that responded to questions from Crikey, the spokesperson said CQU had not been contacted for comment.

“CQU was not contacted by the IPA or Daily Telegraph for comment or clarification, whose ‘research’ on this occasion has left something to be desired,” the spokesperson said. 

Charles Sturt University (CSU), too, said its policies had been portrayed in a misleading way.

The Telegraph story claimed that “Charles Sturt forbids students from ‘inciting negative or degrading dialogue'”.

However, a CSU spokesperson told Crikey that the newspaper had cherrypicked from the policy.

“In the context of free speech it is noteworthy that the full guideline reads: ‘Consider the feelings and dignity of others, respect opposing views and do not incite negative or degrading dialogue’,” the spokesperson said.

In another misleading claim, the Telegraph said Southern Cross University “forbids students from typing a social post in upper case as ‘shouting'”. But a spokesperson for the school said that policy only applies to people authorised to use official university social media accounts, not across the board on private accounts. 

Another school that pushed back on the reporting was Curtin University, which the Telegraph said had banned posts on its social media channels that risked “potential brand damage”.

A spokesperson said the university values academic freedom and that the social media rule only applied to those who operated official university accounts.

“It is disappointing that the study referred to has not looked at the full picture and that both the study author and the media outlet did not contact Curtin,” the spokesperson said. 

It’s likely that the same online behaviour targeted by the Curtin policy would be banned under News Corp Australia’s own social media policy. Staff at the media behemoth are told they “must at all times use best endeavours to manage their social media accounts in a manner that does not reflect poorly” on News Corp.

Notably, that sentence refers to employees’ “own social media accounts”, not just official News Corp accounts. 

Other company rules say employees must “use appropriate language” and avoid “obscene and/or highly derogatory language”. 

Crikey understands there is also a News Corp rule against failing to “comply with … policies relating to discrimination and harassment” and “prohibited conduct”. 

As Crikey has previously reported, News Corp’s internal policies — including encouraging respect of staffers’ chosen pronouns — contradict some of its public reporting about “woke” cultural edicts requiring people to walk on “linguistic eggshells”, in the words of Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

After Crikey sent the IPA the replies from the universities, the think tank said its position had only been “reinforced” by the “disingenuous” pushback.

“University administrators have been caught out and are now being disingenuous about what their anti-free speech policies really mean for students and academics alike,” study author McKee said.

“It is revealing that none of the universities have contested the underlying findings of the IPA’s research, which is that freedom of speech is being suppressed, and conformity demanded, via their policies on university campuses.

“Debate and the contest of ideas is the very essence of university life, and the opportunity for Australian students and academics to freely debate critical issues is being significantly eroded,” McKee said.

The Daily Telegraph did not respond to a request for comment.