The full statement is below.

Industrial action won't influence the way we reach agreement with the NTEU and we believe their stop work action is premature, however we support the right of union members to take protected industrial action and we're continuing to engage at the bargaining table.   

We've advised our staff and students to work and study from home where possible, and expect the majority of teaching staff to be able to hold their classes online to minimise disruption for students.  

We're continuing to engage with the bargaining teams on matters including AI, freedom of speech aims our proposal on workplace change which aims to lessen the impact of these processes on staff wellbeing. 

Matters under discussion 

We support many of the objectives of the unions’ claims, but believe it's more appropriate to implement many of these through relevant policies, instead of in the Enterprise Agreement.    

We're continuing to engage with the bargaining teams on matters including AI, freedom of speech, our proposal on workplace change which aims to improve the impact of these processes on staff wellbeing.

We're also reviewing our position on disability-related matters and workplace adjustments as part of our broader efforts to make the University a more inclusive and accessible place to work and study.  

We have proposed a Secure Academic Employment Package which includes three academic roles that are different to our current continuing academic roles, and which reflect the types of important supplementary teaching work done by our casual staff.

These roles offer stable employment with generous wages, superannuation, and leave conditions. We believe these roles are vital to our efforts to provide job security to our current casual academics.

We’re committed to ensuring workloads remain reasonable and sustainable, and will continue to work with the NTEU bargaining team on the design and implementation of these roles.

Artificial intelligence 

We agree using AI ethically requires a human-centred approach, and our Responsible AI Framework, principles and guardrails that govern use have been developed in consultation with our community, and with our people front of mind.

We also maintain the use of AI is best governed through policies and frameworks that can be updated as needed to respond to this rapidly changing technology rather than set for the three-year term of the enterprise agreement.  

AI is undeniably changing the modern workforce and we consider it our responsibility to make sure our staff have the opportunities and capabilities they need to drive our research, education and operations and to ensure our students and graduates have the capabilities they need for the workplaces of the future.  

We're continuing wide consultation with our community and investing significantly in training.

We have developed strong safeguards around privacy, ethics and academic integrity to ensure AI adoption is undertaken as safely and ethically as possible, and is of benefit to our community.