A leading academic has savaged one of Australia’s most prestigious law schools as a woke “ideological re-education camp” in a recently resurfaced email.
Eric Descheemaeker, a professor at The University of Melbourne Law School and visiting research fellow at Oxford University where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Law, wrote the email to former boss and then-dean, Matthew Harding, in August 2023.
The professor’s correspondence remained private until last week when copies appeared on noticeboards at the university’s Parkville campus, and an image of the print-out was published by The Age.
In the email, which was written in response to an “Indigenous Cultural Safety Review”, Dr Descheemaeker criticised the leftist stances adopted by the university.
“I find the road we are travelling exceedingly sad, and indeed concerning (but in my case more sad than concerning because if it continues I will not feel able to travel along very much longer),” the email began.
“I joined what I thought was a world-class law faculty; I wake up in an ideological re-education camp with incredibly parochial concerns, those of the inner north suburbs of Melbourne (sorry, ‘Naarm’),” Dr Descheemaeker wrote.
“Celebrating the ‘noble savage’ is already the main, if not exclusive, thing MLS [Melbourne Law School] appears to exist for – with just a bit of space to spare for every possible sexual or gendered minority vying for claims to victimhood.”
Dr Descheemaeker added that he and his colleagues are expected to “acknowledge” aboriginal land claims “every 10 feet in our corridors”, and that leftist activists “have made us start every meeting with ritual prayers” – an apparent reference to “welcome to country” ceremonies which are growing in prevalence across the country.
Dr Descheemaeker also wrote that activists and administrators “want to police every aspect of what we do, say, teach (or not do, not say, not teach)” and that they expected him “to teach that Australian law is only ‘settler law’ and that there exists a rich body of ‘indigenous law’ alongside”.
“What are indigenous private-law remedies, I wonder. Ritual spearings?” he asked.
Dr Descheemaeker further stated that he and his colleagues frequently “stand accused before the political commissars”, and that he was amazed that the school “appoint[s] people based on race”.
This comment was made in relation to departed aboriginal colleages, with Dr Descheemaeker noting that he only knew one former co-worker was “indigenous because it was in her job description”. Dr Descheemaeker did observe, however, that “she had a sticker on her office door showing a police car burning”.
Dr Descheemaeker warned that the end result of this emphasis on indigenous issues over traditional academic concerns would inevitably be one of failure.
“There is absolutely no end to where the ‘Blak’ activists are meaning to take us – except destruction,” he wrote.
“This madness has to come to an end.”
The sudden appearance of the email led the university to offer counselling and support services to any staff or students who felt “offended or upset”, and the current Dean of Melbourne Law School, Michelle Foster, described it as “sensitive correspondence”.
According to the latest figures, international students make up 45% of the University of Melbourne’s cohort, and contribute over $1 billion annually in tuition fees. Former Melbourne University Vice Chancellor Duncan Maskell also topped a recent Vice Chancellor pay list with an annual salary of $1.5 million.
Noticer News contacted Dr Descheemaeker for comment.
Header image: Eric Descheemaeker (Facebook).
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