A former University of Sydney staff member offered to “smuggle” non-sensitive documents out before he left for the University of Wollongong as part of an alleged plan to stack the institution with former Sydney staff members.
The three-week hearing is investigating whether former University of Wollongong executive Alyssa White, who quit two days before the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing began, helped friends and associates get jobs at the university on at least 10 occasions. White had a “plan” to move the team from the University of Sydney’s governance team to the University of Wollongong, counsel assisting the commission Emma Bathurst, SC, said on Tuesday.
Brenden Hooke worked with White at the University of Sydney for about four months. When White left for the University of Wollongong, she contacted Hooke about a role at her new university in 2023, the ICAC heard.
White’s encouragement left Hooke “quite confident” he would get the job, he said.
After Hooke got the job, he said in a text to White that “honestly working with ¾ of the OG team is very exciting”.
The ICAC also heard he agreed to smuggle documents from the University of Sydney, including workshop presentations and templates, without seeking Sydney’s permission.
Hooke, as well as White, were later on a selection panel for another job at the University of Wollongong, which ultimately appointed another former University of Sydney staffer, Rosie Biasi.
Biasi was not a friend, he said, despite the fact he went to a “pre-Christmas catch-up” at her Sydney home with other members of the University of Sydney’s governance team.
Asked why he failed to declare that he knew Biasi, Hooke said he did not think the relationship was close enough to warrant a conflict declaration.
“Sad I couldn’t be there for Rosie’s first day,” he later texted White.
On Monday, the ICAC heard that White helped her former colleague Lucinda Wright secure a job at the University of Wollongong in 2023 after she drafted interview questions (which she shared in advance with Wright) and edited her cover letter and résumé. White also sat on the interview panel but failed to disclose their personal relationship outside of work.
The inquiry is also investigating whether White, university chancellor Michael Still or other staff had improperly awarded consulting work worth tens of thousands of dollars to a firm called Aspirall Consulting.
Additionally, it will also probe whether staff failed to manage a conflict of interest relating to the employment of Professor John Dewar as interim vice chancellor (who was paid a salary of $1 million per year in that role) and the university’s concurrent engagement of consultancy firm, KordaMentha, where he was also a business partner.
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