Uni merger… or blood-soaked HBO drama? | Government ad spending roadmap
This week, InSider searches for dragons stalking the South Australian university merger and queries a new proposal for government advertising.
No Game of Thrones here, say uni merger chiefs
South Australia’s university merger is many things to many people – to our Premier, it’s a once-in-a-generation higher education reform; to one former University of Adelaide vice-chancellor, it’s a lumbering dinosaur that we don’t need.
But it is most certainly not an ambition-filled power struggle for the top spots of a new institution, or so say the co-vice-chancellors of Adelaide University.
On May 30, InDaily ran a story headlined “‘Game of Thrones’ culture claim in SA university merger”, which detailed concerns from the higher education staff union that there are “clear and obvious tensions” between senior management at the University of Adelaide and UniSA over the direction of the merger.
Dr Andrew Miller, the union’s division secretary who is quite adept at turning a phrase for the media, likened the situation to the famous and brutal George R. R. Martin-inspired fantasy drama on HBO.
“There’s a lot of angriness, there’s a lot of bitterness, there’s clearly people grappling for positionality… clear and obvious tensions. We’ve seen it ourselves in meetings that we’ve been at,” Miller said at the time.
“So, this doesn’t bode well for a successful build when you’ve got that kind of Game of Thrones cultural dynamic happening alongside building a new university.”
Nearly three months later, the comments have not been forgotten by Adelaide University co-vice-chancellors Peter Høj and David Lloyd.
The duo penned a punchy op-ed for British magazine Times Higher Education last week headlined “Adelaide University merger is no Game of Thrones”.
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It kicks off with a reference to “recent media commentary” (who could they mean? And we prefer to call it reporting…), as well as a backhanded compliment for the human mind.
“You’ve got to hand it to the human imagination. Its ability to come up with theory in the absence of fact is sometimes astonishing,” Høj and Lloyd wrote.
“Some recent media commentary might have you believe that there are wicked games afoot in the integration of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia as the two institutions grapple to form the new Adelaide University.
“But this isn’t Game of Thrones. This is no ‘red wedding’, at which one clan is seeking to slaughter the other.
“And neither of us, the leaders of these supposed clans, is planning to knife the other in the back in a ruthless quest to ascend the Iron Throne.”
While a deathmatch or cagefight to become Adelaide University’s new leader would certainly make good content for Insider as well as InDaily’s Corporate Ladder column, we’ll take the vice-chancellors’ word that it’s not on the cards.
As for the real dragons threatening the merger?
It’s not Warren Bebbington’s lumbering dinosaur. It is, of course, the federal government’s plans to cap international students – something so threatening that a university executive earlier this month questioned whether the merger would go ahead if it was being negotiated now. (The Malinauskas Government is now confident that South Australia has avoided the brunt of the federal government’s policy change).
Høj and Lloyd said they have modelled “responsibility managed and sustainable” growth in international student numbers after Adelaide University opens in January 2026.
“However, those models assume policy stability,” the vice-chancellors warned.
“Any short-sighted departures from that could have serious consequences, both for us, the wider sector and the entire nation.
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“Yes, there be dragons alright – but we are not their mothers.”
A roadmap to crack down on government advertising
Two months ago, InSider mulled over the breakneck speed in which the Malinauskas Government began advertising its “Housing Roadmap” policies, noting the advertising truck parked outside a city Hungry Jacks soon after the Premier’s housing reforms were announced.
The trucks fired the starting gun on a government advertising campaign that has been hard to miss for anyone with a TV or smartphone, with ads spruiking “more homes for South Australians” a fixture on social media, commercial television and even InDaily.
The government’s most recent advertising spending disclosures reveal a budget of $1,150,000 for the “public education campaign” that outlines “actions that will deliver more homes faster and will get more South Australians into their own home”.
A public education campaign is one way to describe it. The government’s political opponents have far less charitable words for it.
“There is a blurred line between government advertising and political party advertising,” Greens MLC Robert Simms said in parliament this week.
“Because, of course, governments of both persuasions when they are promoting their agenda are also potentially promoting the political party agenda too.
“Surely, in the middle of a housing crisis Labor should be spending that money on actually building more housing rather than telling everybody how great they are.”
Simms this week introduced legislation – which, like many other things he proposes, has no chance of becoming law without substantial amendments from the government – requiring any government advertising campaign of more than $10,000 in the lead up to an election to obtain approval from the Auditor-General or the Parliament.
He also criticised the Malinauskas Government’s $1.6 million budget to spruik its State Property Project (which notably included bar mats and coasters) and noted that taxpayer-funded advertising – which goes towards everything from public safety campaigns to event promotions – reached a record $47.6 million in 2022/23. Solstice Media, the publisher of InDaily, also receives state government advertising in its titles, including during that period.
A government spokesperson said it would “consider its position” on Simms’s bill. They also defended the budget spend on the housing roadmap campaign, noting its disparity compared with the government’s $1.5 billion SA Water investment program.
“The Housing Roadmap campaign is public education campaign designed to inform the public about the actions that will deliver more homes faster and will get more South Australians into their own home,” the spokesperson said.
“That includes informing first homebuyers of the abolition of stamp duty on new homes, informing renters of new rights, informing the public about reforms to the planning process, as well as investments in key water infrastructure and additional Housing Trust homes.
“The total budget for the Housing Roadmap campaign represents less than 0.001 per cent of the expenditure the State Government has committed in water and wastewater infrastructure to address the housing crisis over the next four years.”
