An influential Catholic college in Sydney is under investigation by the higher education regulator over a series of comments made by two of its prominent academics supporting the White Australia policy and calling for Anglo-Celtic Australians and Europeans to become a \u201csupermajority\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n
The federal education minister, Jason Clare, said the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa) was \u201cundertaking a compliance process\u201d with Campion College in relation to a number of comments made by Stephen McInerney, a dean of studies, and Associate Prof Stephen Chavura, a senior lecturer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no place for racism in higher education or anywhere else in our society,\u201d Clare said.<\/p>\n
The investigation came after the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a> reported that McInerney and Chavura promoted white nationalism, prompting Campion to investigate the duo while defending the freedom of speech of its staff members.<\/p>\n This year Chavura established an Anglo-Celtic nationalist group for Australian men in opposition to \u201cleftist thugs\u201d, \u201cmass immigration and multiculturalism\u201d, but was quoted in the Herald as denying it was sympathetic with Nazism or racism. Last week he said a banner reading \u201cAbolish the Jewish Lobby\u201d at a neo-Nazi rally in Sydney was \u201cpolitical speech\u201d that should be \u201cprotected\u201d.<\/p>\n Chavura has denied being a white nationalist and called the Herald\u2019s reporting an \u201cattempt to strangle a rising new conservative movement in its infancy\u201d.<\/p>\n McInerney, a former deputy head of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation who also serves on Campion\u2019s academic board and board of trustees, attended the March for Australia<\/a> rally in Sydney this August, where he warned of a \u201cradical transformation\u201d of Australia caused by \u201creckless levels of immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n On X McInerney describes himself as an \u201cAustralian nationalist\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the Commonwealth created by & for White Australians & want my people to flourish in it again,\u201d his bio says.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n He posted a string of comments on X this month encouraging the public to become \u201cpolitical supporters\u201d of the White Australia party (WAP), which was formed this year by the National Socialist Network, a coalition of neo-Nazis led by Thomas Sewell.<\/p>\n McInerney\u2019s comments were directly responding to concerns raised by an Australian federal police acting deputy commissioner, Nigel Ryan, at a parliamentary committee examining the 2025 election<\/a> over the National Socialist Network\u2019s bid to enter politics.<\/p>\n McInerney reiterated to Guardian Australia that the WAP should be free to stand in elections, not because it was the \u201cmost ideal answer to our nation\u2019s problems\u201d but in the \u201cinterests of our democracy and the larger cause of the anti-mass-immigration movement\u201d.<\/p>\n He described himself as an \u201cethno-religious nationalist\u201d but said he did not espouse personal political views in class and they formed \u201cno part\u201d of his curriculum, while adding he would be \u201chappy to explain or clarify my views\u201d outside the college.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether or not I would vote for the White Australia Party would depend on what other parties were running. Ideally, I\u2019d rather vote for a pro-White and explicitly pro-Christian party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe European peoples should have their own homelands, like every other race, where they are unquestioned super majorities, and that it is legitimate for them to organise politically to preserve or achieve that reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He said his \u201cideological disagreements with National Socialism are a matter of the public record\u201d.<\/p>\n Chauvra has also reiterated his views, writing on X that \u201cAnglo-Celtic\u201d people should be the \u201coverwhelming demographic majority\u201d in Australia. \u201cYes, it is an ethnic conception of the Australian nation and culture,\u201d he wrote on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Campion, a small private institution in western Sydney, was founded in 2006 and offers degrees in history, literature, philosophy and theology at the \u201cheart of the Western intellectual tradition\u201d.<\/p>\n Its academic freedom policy permits staff to \u201cinclude content in their teaching that may offend or shock any student or class of students\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The college president, Paul Morrissey, did not respond to a request for comment, including on the outcome of the investigation, but earlier told the Herald the comments by Chavura and McInerney referred to in its reporting had been made in a personal capacity and there was no evidence either had treated students unfairly.<\/p>\n He told the Herald the college affirmed \u201cthe dignity of every human person, regardless of their race and religion\u201d and that it believed in academic freedom, freedom of speech and robust debate.<\/p>\n \u201cA commitment to freedom of speech is meaningless if it doesn\u2019t extend to people who say unpopular or even, to some, offensive things,\u201d Morrissey was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n Despite its size, Campion has powerful backers. Members of its board of trustees include Joseph de Bruyn, who came under fire<\/a> last year for comparing abortion to the \u201chuman toll of world war two\u201d<\/a> at an Australian Catholic University graduation ceremony, and the former Liberal minister Zed Seselja.<\/p>\n De Bruyn and Seselja did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n This year the college unveiled a grand hall named after the late cardinal George Pell<\/a>. The former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, both longtime supporters of the college, spoke at the event.<\/p>\n Howard declined to comment on McInerney\u2019s public remarks. \u201cI maintain my respect for Campion College,\u201d he said. Abbott did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Campion received $5m in federal government funding under the former Coalition<\/a> government as part of its $20m capital works appeal, and an additional $5m from the state government towards infrastructure between 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Teqsa said the compliance processes related to the \u201cextent to which Campion is meeting its obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (2021)<\/a> in relation to matters that have been publicly reported\u201d. They did not confirm which parts of the framework were in question.<\/p>\n