Deakin University has sacked journalism professor Martin Hirst for serious misconduct, citing three tweets they claimed breached the institution’s code of conduct for academics.

Hirst, 59, was informed by letter on Thursday afternoon that his employment in Deakin’s school of communication and creative arts had been terminated. He has until 23 June to appeal.

Deakin found that content posted to Hirst’s private Twitter account @ethicalmartini was “offensive and/or disrespectful and/or threatening and had the potential to damage the reputation of the university”.

The former journalist was suspended without pay on 19 April after being accused of serious misconduct.

Hirst told Guardian Australia he was disappointed and saddened by the university’s decision and denied threatening a student in one of the tweets.

The university received a complaint about an exchange on 20 March 2016 in which Hirst said “so are you happy to fail commerce?” to a Deakin University student, Lachlan McDougall, who had insulted his teaching.

The exchange came about after the News Corp columnist Rita Panahi said Hirst was a “rent-seeking simpleton full of bitterness & bile” after he called her unstable.

McDougall replied: “I’m glad I’m a commerce student and not subject to this man’s [Hirst’s] stewardship.”

Hirst argued in his formal response to the allegations that he was not threatening McDougall in the tweet but was merely questioning his intelligence, and he didn’t realise McDougall was a student at Deakin at the time.

The university disagreed and said the tweet would be interpreted by a reasonable person as a threat to the academic progress of McDougall.

After an investigation the university identified two other tweets and accused Hirst of breaching the code of conduct for academics.

The second tweet contained a photo of a knitted beanie on which the words “fuck it” are printed, with the caption: “Back to work after the Easter break? You need this beanie. I’ve got mine on today, it’s a subtle hint to your boss.”

A third was a retweet of a comment by the ABC host Mark Colvin about Andrew Bolt’s relatively small audience on Sky News, to which Hirst had added the words “reassuring, masturbating chimps”.

Deakin’s school of communication and creative arts told Hirst his Twitter use constituted “repeated instances of misconduct”.

The sacking comes despite protests from the National Tertiary Education Union.

The Victorian division secretary of, the NTEU, Colin Long, had demanded Hirst be reinstated and his salary backdated because the allegations were not of a “serious enough nature” to warrant suspension under the university’s enterprise agreement.

Comment on the termination has been sought from the university.



In 2014 Hirst narrowly escaped losing his job after Bolt drew attention to his Twitter account by posting a series of his tweets on his blog.

The university said it had taken his conduct in 2014 into account when deciding to terminate his employment.

When asked about Hirst’s 2014 suspension a Deakin university spokeswoman said at the time: “It is the university’s practice not to comment on individual staffing matters. All staff are expected to comply with their employment obligations and the university’s code of conduct.

“Deakin university respects academic freedom and has clear policy on the protection afforded its academic staff in this regard.”