Academic focus zones for 2025
News 11 DecemberThe 2025 Academic Timeline interactions and focus zones are now available to help prioritise the planning and delivery of learning and teaching. Sync the focus zones to your Outlook calendar now.
21 September 2015
Share
Malcolm Mackerras is an unlikely member of the staff at ACU because he is not, strictly speaking, on the staff. He is a visiting fellow at the ACU Canberra campus, working in the Blackfriars building.
He has full use of all the facilities and even a modest allowance for secretarial work. He behaves as though he is a full-time non-teaching academic.
These days he seems to spend most of his off-campus time lobbying politicians for his enthusiasms. When he next appears before a parliamentary committee he will describe himself thus:
“I am a 76 year old politics academic whose qualification to lecture politicians is based on having the letters AO after my name,” he said.
If pressed to say why he was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2006 he will quote the citation for his award which was: “For service to the community by raising public awareness of and encouraging debate about the political process in Australia and other western democracies, and through commitment to reform and improvement of the electoral system, and to education.”
He used to be a teaching academic. For thirty years (from 1974 to 2004) he taught politics to the future army, navy and air force officers of Australia and New Zealand.
His location was first at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and then at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Among his former students are Andrew Wilkie MP, Stuart Robert MP, Senator David Fawcett and the current Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers.
His titles were lecturer, senior lecturer and then associate professor. People instinctively call him “Professor Mackerras” but when they do he corrects them by telling them that the PhD thesis he submitted in 1977 was failed by the examiners.
He has both admirers and detractors. One of his admirers is financial and economic guru Peter Switzer who was so impressed at the ability of Malcolm Mackerras to make good political predictions he was made the “politics expert” of the SWITZER television programme on Sky News Business.
Consequently when Mackerras feels he has an opinion to express he writes that opinion on the SWITZER website. Otherwise he writes academic and newspaper articles. For all these he describes himself as: “Malcolm Mackerras is a visiting fellow at the Australian Catholic University’s Canberra campus.”
As to how he won this position is an interesting story. When he retired from teaching politics at ADFA his then actual employer, the University of New South Wales, made him a visiting fellow at ADFA for seven years. When that expired in November 2011 he offered himself to ACU where he has worked since.
When he has nothing better to do he writes a book which is designed to collect all his writings over the past 60 years. (His first published newspaper article was in August 1957.)
It is likely to be a magnum opus. He is not at all sure it will be publishable but he writes it nonetheless. He has already thought up a title: “It’s not the Voting that’s Democracy... " For those who do not know him that may sound a strange title. It comes from a play called Jumpers written by Tom Stoppard in 1972 in which one of the actors says: "It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting."
The 2025 Academic Timeline interactions and focus zones are now available to help prioritise the planning and delivery of learning and teaching. Sync the focus zones to your Outlook calendar now.
ACU will move to the new EBSCOhost user interface on 4 February 2025. Find out what you need to do to prepare.
Please note the digests from Academic Board meetings 06/2024 held on 14 November 2024 and via circular resolution from 15-19 November 2024.
The 2024 Showcase of Teaching and Learning brought staff and students together to share innovations and collaborations from across the university. An online edition will be hosted in early 2025.
It has been a big year, and we understand that the festive season can be a different experience for each of us. Access a new resource from our employee assistance program, designed to help you prepare...
ACU's Co-Lab proudly announces Kyla Tucker as the winner of the $1,000 ACU Co-Lab Business Idea Pitch Award 2024, following careful evaluation by a panel of ACU judges.
Limited services will be available via Service Central on 12 and 13 December, while the Service Central team attend a staff conference. The Service Central phone line and live chat will not be availab...
A message from Vice President Fr Anthony Casamento csma: Ok, let’s not kid ourselves. If you are like me, December can feel like chaos. Yet, amid this chaos, the Church gives us the Season of Advent -...
Associate Professor Grant Duthie from the SPRINT Research Centre and Professor Jo Ingold from the Peter Faber Business School have won a prestigious government grant that will see them work with the b...
Let’s reflect on our inclusive practices during International Day of People with Disability.
ACU’s Peter Faber Business School has earned accreditation from AACSB, the US-based organisation that accredits business schools worldwide.
A message from the Provost, Professor Julie Cogin: As we approach the end of the year it’s fitting to look back and reflect on everything we’ve achieved over the past 12 months.
Find out the end-of-year deadlines and operating hours for a range of staff and student services within Corporate Services including Service Central, People & Capability and Student Administration.
The popular medicines database MIMS Online is upgrading to a new platform and changing its name to eMIMSelite.
16 Days is a global campaign observed annually from November 25 to December 10 and serves as a critical reminder of the pervasive and often invisible violence that affects millions of people. Watch a ...
Include an additional survey item in the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching (SELT) survey for units that are offered in ACU Online Term 4 (202476).
With the end of the year approaching, it's time to ensure a smooth closure of the university’s 2024 accounting books and financial year-end work. Check the finance end-of-year deadlines for 2024.
ACU’s Graduation and Protocol team has been recognized at the 2024 Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) Awards for Excellence for their innovative Reader Module project.
A message from the Executive Dean of Health Sciences Professor Suzanne Chambers: The Faculty of Health Sciences research space has seen colleagues come together in a spirit of shared learning and conn...
Role of Chair training is now available through the ACU Staff Learning Hub.
Visit Service Central to access Corporate Services.