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Updated July 6, 2026 — 4:16pm,first published 2:45pm
A $2 million fund for “council-approved initiatives” at the University of Wollongong was used to promote an executive’s friend and hire a consulting firm favoured by the then-chancellor, despite the council not approving either things, the ICAC has heard.
The public inquiry into the University of Wollongong began its third week on Monday with Michael Still, who on Friday quit his post as chancellor of the besieged institution.
The corruption watchdog is probing whether governance officer Alyssa White or others subverted recruitment processes to employ her friends and whether Still or others had improperly awarded work to a consulting firm called Aspirall Consulting.
The three-week public hearing is also examining how the university managed interim vice-chancellor and KordaMentha partner John Dewar’s appointment and the conflict of interest with his consulting firm.
More than 10 per cent of the initiatives fund was spent on promoting Dr Stacy Oon – a former colleague of White’s who admitted to ICAC that she had received significant help from White while being promoted – to a job with a $225,000 salary despite objections from the university’s HR team and former staffer Sean Brawley.
Text messages and emails tendered on Monday showed that White and Still had discussed at length how Oon’s salary – characterised by HR as “fair, equitable and in line with the market” – could be bumped up further; he also sat on the panel for her promotion for the first time.
Still told ICAC on Monday he didn’t think he was overstepping and had acted in the best interests of the university.
Still also introduced Aspirall Consulting to former vice chancellor Patricia Davidson and White, suggesting that Aspirall be awarded work to do focus groups at the university.
Still was a long-term business associate of Aspirall principal Tanya Diesel, whose family he had met and for whom he had provided references in the past.
“You approved Aspirall and the work to be done, but not the payment,” Commissioner Paul Lakatos said.
Still did not consider how Aspirall would be paid, he said. The money came from the $2 million designated for council priorities, although it had never been noted that the council wanted to spend the money in this way.
Still later told Diesel that some staff at the university were “damaged beyond repair”, texts tendered to ICAC show.
Still also played a pivotal role in White’s attempts to secure a $50,000 pay rise in 2024 as the executive sponsor of a paper detailing her as having “unparalleled expertise” and “visionary leadership”. White wrote the paper.
White was not promoted to the $389,000 role but remained on a salary of more than $300,000 a year until she quit the role two days ahead of the ICAC public hearing.
In an email ahead of her appointment to the job, White emailed Still asking if she should “reduce the paragraph about my skills and be more bland there”.
When HR head Alison Bourke flagged her concerns about promoting White, Still texted White that he hoped Bourke “hasn’t drunk too much Kool-Aid”.
In a file note from the conversation, Bourke said that Still had told her “process prevents the right decision”. He also said “definitely not” to advertising the role, her note said.
Still said he recalled the conversation differently and was “absolutely sure” he did not kibosh advertising.
He also denied saying that process prevents the right outcome, and further denied putting pressure on staff to achieve an outcome for White, and breaching his duties as chancellor by updating White on the process.
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