Michelle Arrow
LightNews LightNews
banner
michellearrow.bsky.social
Michelle Arrow
@michellearrow.bsky.social
1.6K followers 1.4K following 160 posts
Historian. Author, The Seventies (2019), co-author Personal Politics (2024). Writing a biography of Anne Deveson. President, Australian Historical Association. Whitlam Institute Fellow. FASSA. She/her. Views my own. http://newsouthbooks.com.au/books.
Posts Replies Media Videos
michellearrow.bsky.social
And putting Whitlam in a longer context - short essays on all the PMs since Whitlam here:

theconversation.com/how-did-the-...
How did the 10 prime ministers since Whitlam change Australia?
As prime minister, Whitlam changed the country in profound ways. 10 experts assess how the prime ministers since shape up as agents of change - for better or worse.
theconversation.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
michellearrow.bsky.social
It’s that time of year when too much Whitlam is barely enough! Here’s my addition to the fray:

theconversation.com/extraordinar...
Extraordinary and occasionally inept: before The Dismissal, the Whitlam government changed Australia forever
With a bold reform agenda and occasional administrative chaos, Whitlam’s three-year government had, and continues to have, a profound effect on Australian life.
theconversation.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 PM
michellearrow.bsky.social
I watched six hours of Australian history on TV so you don’t have to (though I think you should!)

www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-a...
Tony Abbott and Rachel Griffiths are hosting rival TV shows with some surprising things in common
Both take on frontier violence and the challenge of finding drama in a foundational moment that many Australians don’t appreciate.
www.smh.com.au
October 24, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
humanitiesau.bsky.social
Free event 📣The right to enquire? A Symposium on #academicfreedom.

📅 Tues 25 Nov
📍 University of Melbourne
Tickets: bit.ly/4qg5Q0y

Speakers include Prof @michellearrow.bsky.social, Prof @joelobianco.bsky.social, Prof
@adriennestone.bsky.social, Prof Frank Bongiorno, Prof Peter Greste & more.
October 17, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
priscillapage.bsky.social
Diane Keaton in her Manhattan apartment with Buster, an Abyssinian, photographed by Jill Krementz in 1977
black & white photograph of young Diane Keaton smiling and standing next to a white refrigerator in a barren-looking kitchen. her cat Buster is crouched on top of the fridge playing with/swatting her hair in the upper right hand corner. she's wearing a long skinny white scarf with a dot-grid pattern, a high-neck white blouse with an ascot/kerchief around the neck, and a black blazer/skirt or blazer dress over what looks like a vest
October 12, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
thehighsign.bsky.social
Never have I so badly needed Daniel Craig to say these words
craigweekend.bsky.social It's The Weekend 😌 @craigweekend.bsky.social · Sep 26
Ladies and gentlemen... the weekend. (also: you are important and are not alone 🧡)
September 26, 2025 at 11:30 PM
michellearrow.bsky.social
Bleak times at Macquarie Uni, as management moves to implement large scale job cuts in arts and science (because who needs that expertise, right?). Amanda’s threat outlines the lies that underpin these changes. We need urgent governance reform now: but is the government listening?
amandawise.bsky.social Prof. Amanda Wise @amandawise.bsky.social · Sep 20
1/At Macquarie Uni we are losing 50% of our units in my faculty. This is on top of cuts in 2020. We estimate by next year my faculty will be teaching 80% fewer subjects than pre Covid. Disciplines being cut do not have declining enrolments. @jennaprice.bsky.social @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social
September 20, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
hlmurray.bsky.social
This is disgraceful - both the workload and the AI ‘workaround’
ernestopriego.com Ernesto Priego @ernestopriego.com · Sep 17
Simply astonishing. Maybe Lecturer A should not have to mark over 100 essays in a two-week window in the first place? Invest in qualified staff and reduce impossible workloads FFS www.kcl.ac.uk/about/strate...
Screenshot. King's College London page. Examples of effective practice The following scenarios follow the above guidelines and offer insights into ways that academic staff can use AI transparently and in an assistive capacity, always ensuring human oversight and judgment remain central. Scenario A – Scaling feedback while maintaining quality Lecturer A is responsible for marking over 100 essays within a two-week window. Conscious of the limitations this workload places on the depth of individual feedback, they adopt a hybrid approach using their university’s approved or supported LLM tool, Copilot. Without ever uploading student work directly, Lecturer A composes an anonymised summary for each student, noting which marking criteria were met and the approximate percentage achieved for each. They input this summary alongside the official rubric into Copilot, prompting it to generate supportive, criterion-referenced feedback. This feedback is then carefully reviewed, adapted, and personalised before being uploaded to the marking platform. Students are made aware of this process in advance and shown a demonstration, reinforcing transparency and trust.
September 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
natecochrane.bsky.social
Don’t ever let Labor say there’s no money for essential services when Richard Marles says it’s budgeted $25 billion for submarine pens to support the U.S. Navy.

#Insiders #auspol
September 13, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
instanterudite.bsky.social
This is shoddy but unsurprising behaviour from an institution that continues to lionise Ben Roberts-Smith despite multiple courts having determined him to be a murderer.
September 12, 2025 at 6:30 AM
michellearrow.bsky.social
Great piece on the failures of governance and regulation over our university sector by Richard Dennis:

australiainstitute.org.au/post/imagine...
Imagine if a business or federal department acted like this. Here's why unis get away it
The leaders of Australian universities are enjoying the best of both worlds when it comes to the way they are regulated, but students are getting the worst.
australiainstitute.org.au
September 13, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
katherineschof8.bsky.social
Most humanities research — including the best, most world leading research by people we’ve all heard of — is unfunded, by which they mean produced as part of one’s routine job as a university lecturer, just “not funded by a big competitive external grant”.

This would mean the death of research.
September 12, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
andylevy.net
his father was unavailable for comment
factpostnews.bsky.social FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social · Sep 9
RFK Jr: We had lots of guns when we were kids. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so. And nobody was walking into schools and shooting people. There are many things that could explain this. One is the dependence on psychiatric drugs.
September 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
hayleygleeson.bsky.social
“of course it struggled to be viable – it’s a literary magazine. almost no literary magazines around the world are financially viable; that’s not their purpose. the point is their cultural value, the role they serve as a platform for ideas and creativity…” www.theguardian.com/books/commen...
The end of Meanjin after 85 years is as sad as it is infuriating | Ben Walter
MUP says it is ‘no longer viable’ to make the literary magazine – but almost none of them are financially viable. That’s not their purpose or value
www.theguardian.com
September 6, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
drdemography.com
Forced redundancies and restructuring at ANU must stop - in the least pause - while TEQSA investigates the university. Leadership also must step aside while the regulator examines their conduct. How can an investigation be completed fairly any other way? www.teqsa.gov.au/sites/defaul...
To inform TEQSA's compliance assessment and its regulatory options, TEQSA requires the Independent Expert to provide an opinion on whether ANU's corporate governance, leadership and culture is operating effectively, with particular reference to whether: a. actual or potential conflicts of interest are identified and appropriately managed, and whether this is tested and challenged (where appropriate); b. the development of plans, priorities and responses (including those focussed on financial sustainability) is informed by an appropriate breadth of perspective and oversight, including internal consultation, external advice, and consideration and discussion of that internal consultation/advice by Council; c. relevant risks associated with the implementation of plans/priorities/change are appropriately identified, discussed and addressed at Council and among ANU leadership; d. in cases where concerns about ANU's corporate governance, its leadership, or its culture do arise, there are effective mechanisms to raise and respond to those concerns, including through complaints and grievance processes. In undertaking this review, the Independent Expert's activities will include, but are not limited to: a. undertaking targeted consultations and interviews with ANU staff, students, and current and former Council members; b. conducting interviews with ANU senior executives and governance officeholders; c. reviewing Council papers, meeting minutes, and decision records; d. examining financial statements, reporting frameworks, and audit materials; e. analysing organisational culture, leadership practices, and staff wellbeing issues; considering relevant legal, compliance, and policy documentation; g. identifying systemic or root causes of governance concerns; and, h. advising TEQSA on implications for higher education governance more broadly.
August 29, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
biblioracle.bsky.social
"A lot of the business majors didn’t think they had learned anything particularly useful in college." Knock me over with a feather. www.chronicle.com/newsletter/t...
The Surprising Truth About Which College Majors Are Actually Useful at Work
A sociologist studied how students get internships and jobs, and who really uses their degrees.
www.chronicle.com
August 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
zorasimic.bsky.social
Thanks to @michellearrow.bsky.social , @frankbongiorno.bsky.social and Anna Clark for bringing solutions to the higher ed crisis - as teachers and researchers, not consultants
theconversation.com/universities...
Universities have lost their way, but cost-cutting and consultants are not the answer
Last week in Sydney, we saw a melodrama acted out that could stand in for the state of Australian universities more generally.
theconversation.com
August 25, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
alisonbarnes.bsky.social
Dr Liz Allen’s evidence today was heartbreaking, brave and infuriating. This is the devastating personal toll of broken governance. Julie Bishop must resign immediately or be sacked. t.co/O9W9nhpydN
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-12/anu-academic-alleges-julie-bishop-bullying-senate-inquiry/105641930
t.co
August 12, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
nteunion.bsky.social
Senator @mehreenfaruqi.bsky.social: ‘Does it worry you that the staff students and alumni are so dissatisfied and untrusting of governance and the university?’

Kate Witenden, ANU Chief People Officer: ‘I’m not aware of this.’

Senator Faruqi: ‘Why am I aware and you are not?’
August 12, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
nteunion.bsky.social
‘Our public universities have become corporatised, governed from behind closed doors by people with little connection to the daily realities of staff and students. The consequences have been catastrophic.’ Dr Alison Barnes, NTEU National President at today’s Senate Inquiry into university governance
August 12, 2025 at 3:41 AM
michellearrow.bsky.social
Help us reach our target of 5000 signatures - please sign and share!
August 12, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
leena.reuben.games
12 single mums chaired by an academic could put together an entire system in a day for the cost of lunch
August 11, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
radiodeadair.com
The crux of their argument is that if they're found liable, then the consequences of their own actions that no one forced them to take could ruin them and the rest of their industry that undertakes similar practices.

To which I say motherfucker did you never hear about Napster
AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified
Copyright class actions could financially ruin AI industry, trade groups say.
arstechnica.com
August 9, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
thesaturdaypaper.com.au
The government is under mounting pressure to dump a Morrison-era policy that has drastically cut university funding, saddled many students with debts they will never be able to repay and driven many more away from higher education altogether. satpa.pe/MA6GXR1
Why Labor is stalling on real universities funding reform
The education minister has deferred action to abolish the Morrison-era Job-ready Graduates scheme, which has helped to hollow out tertiary funding and saddled students with lifelong debts.
satpa.pe
August 9, 2025 at 4:23 AM
Reposted by Michelle Arrow
austhistassoc.bsky.social
We are so close to reaching our target of 2500 signatures on this petition calling for the repeal of Job-Ready Graduates! If you care about equity in higher education and want the BA to be affordable and accessible for *all* students, please sign! www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...
Repeal Job-Ready Graduates Policy Now: Restoring Equity in Higher Education - Online petition
We sign this petition in solidarity with those who signed the Open Letter to the Prime Minister on 28 July 2025…
www.openpetition.org
August 4, 2025 at 12:57 AM