Student Outrage As USyd Advertises Hong Kong Police Jobs

The job listing posted to CareerHub.

Ellie Stephenson reports.

Students have expressed outrage at a job advertisement posted to the University of Sydney’s CareerHub recruiting police inspectors for the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). Students argue that the advertisement, which targets permanent residents of Hong Kong, condones violence perpetrated by the Hong Kong police and should be taken down. 

This controversy occurs after UNSW and UTS removed listings for the police force earlier this year after facing backlash. The University of Melbourne was also criticised for publishing the listings, however they opted to keep them up. Overseas, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam handed back an Honorary Degree from the University of Cambridge after criticism about her handling of freedom of expression and academic freedom in the region. 

The Hong Kong Police have been involved in ongoing violence in clashes with pro-democracy protestors on the streets of the city. The protests were sparked by the now-withdrawn Extradition Bill, which many felt would undermine democracy in Hong Kong. They saw the city wracked with arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets, with allegations that police exercised undue force in suppressing protests. Protestors, human rights organisations and the UN have called for an independent inquiry into the Hong Kong police. 

Former USU Honorary Secretary Decheng Sun, who found the listing and has contacted the Vice Chancellor to demand it be taken down, told Pulp: “It is not a question of politics; it is a question of humanity. By this advertisement, the University declares that there is no way for students to escape from the horrors and nightmares, even on campus in Australia”. 

The controversy reached Federal Parliament today in the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, which is currently discussing foreign interference in Australian universities.  Victorian ALP Senator Kimberley Kitching asked Universities Australia CEO Catriona Jackson about the listing to minimal response. The Committee is examining the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Bill, which attempts to govern how Federal Governments engage with relationships between State and Territory government bodies (like universities) and foreign governments.