VC's update - connections

Hi everyone,

Yesterday the University hosted a visit by the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, the Honorable Feleti Teo OBE and members of his government. A distinguished alumni from the School of Law, Prime Minister Teo was in Canberra to open the new Tuvalu High Commission. He took time to meet with key members of the College of Asia and the Pacific and also the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions, before giving a public lecture in the Lowitja O’Donoghue Cultural Centre – you can find his speech here. Our ANU Pasifika Student Association garlanded the Prime Minister and his visiting party. The event was a powerful reminder of the important ties the University has with the Pacific and all the ways we are connected to our region – through research and teaching, public policy and also personal life journals – and the work we do with our Pacific neighbours.

Yesterday also saw our 2024 Annual Report tabled in federal Parliament. We submitted the report back in April to the Department of Education, so it is good to see it publicly available. You can find the 2024 Annual Report (here), along with the last 25 years of Annual Reports. You can also find more information about the report, its contents and format on the same page. My thanks to everyone around the organisation who helped prepare material for the report, to Council who approved it, and to Professor Emily Banks who is gracing its cover. The Annual Report is one of the important ways we report to government on what we do here, and along with the Corporate Plan (here), forms part of how we discharge our various statutory obligations, as well as tell our story.

Closer to home, I had the opportunity to meet with the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, and to share with him the 2024 Annual Report. We talked about our progress toward a more financially sustainable university and reflected on our shared commitments to the ACT and to the ANU, especially when it comes to supporting and nurturing vibrant and engaged communities. And along with the CFO, I meet with NTEU leadership, Millan Pintos-Lopez and Lachlan Clohesy, last week. We talked about our shared commitment to our community’s wellbeing, and the progress that we have made in reducing our overall leave liability. I confirmed that the University would be closed from Thursday 25 December 2025, and would reopen on Friday 2 January 2026. We also talked about the upcoming Enterprise Agreement negotiation in 2026, and reflected on what had worked well in 2023 and our hopes for 2026. I am sure we will have further conversations on this topic in coming months.

I know that everyone is working hard and working hard to support our students, our colleagues and our friends across the University community. And I know there remains a lot of uncertainty and change in our community; and we are working to stabilise and finalise things where and when we can. I encourage everyone to engage with the consultation processes that are running across the University. Your continued support for returning ANU to a sustainable position that puts us in good shape for our future success is appreciated.

Good thoughts to wherever this finds you,
Genevieve