Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

These amendments would expand the scope of academic freedom protection to all staff who engage in academic work beyond what their substantive employment classification would normally be. These amendments are practical ones. They have been moved on the basis that they ensure academic freedom applies based on the nature of the work being undertaken, not on the way in which the staff are actually classified. We know that many workers in our universities are employed as professional staff, whether they be in university laboratories or in libraries, and that they engage themselves in research projects and the like; therefore Labor will support these amendments and the proposition that lies behind them.