Front-page News Corp story questioning her CV exposed as incorrect after mixing up student union and council

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The Australian newspaper has claimed that the union leader Sally McManus faked her CV when she said she was president of a university union for two years.



The story, headlined “Mystery of union chief’s uni claim”, said the ACTU secretary was “not elected to the student union council in any elections in 1991, 1992, 1993 or 1994”.



But her Macquarie University deputy student leader at the time and McManus herself have demolished the story, saying it was lacking in research and was the result of a mix-up between the student union and the student council.



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Mark Greenhill, now the mayor of Blue Mountains council, said McManus was president of the Macquarie University student union. “I should know, I was her vice-president,” Greenhill said.

“Anyone aware of politics on Australian campuses in the 1990s would be aware, there was a separation between representative service and political bodies.



“A separate body, the Macquarie University student council, was the political body.”

The Australian’s associate editor, Brad Norington, who has written a series of articles critical of McManus, implied in an “exclusive” story that McManus had faked her experience on her professional profile on LinkedIn.



“The claim by ACTU secretary Sally McManus that she headed the student union at Macquarie University for more than two years is in dispute, with no records showing she ever held the post,” he wrote on the front page of the Australian.



“On her LinkedIn ‘experience’ profile, Ms McManus says she was president of the student union at North Ryde, in Sydney’s northwest, from August 1991 to August 1993, for ‘2yrs 1 mo’.”



The story was promoted by the Australian’s associate editor, Caroline Overington, on Twitter before an address by McManus at the National Press Club.



Caroline Overington (@overingtonc) Reporters will asking @sallymcmanus tough questions about her resume when she appears at Press Club today: https://t.co/rcMGrrt8Ah

During questions McManus was asked about the discrepancy by a reporter from the Australian, Joe Kelly.

She said the paper needed to do “more research” because there used to be two bodies: the university students’ union and the students’ council.

“I was reminded that I was on both of them for a brief period of time. But I was president of the university union. I was there for two years and what our job was … is … running all the services for workers.



“So, for students, and we obviously employed all the workers as well. So that’s why we banned smoking in the student bar because that’s what we ran. So, yeah, the reports in the Australian just aren’t correct.”

On the Australian’s own website, several commenters pointed out that story was wrong. One said: “McManus was president of the student union not the student council. They are very different. The student union ran the facilities like catering, the student building, the bar etc. The student council was the political body. I am surprised that the editors have not already issued a correction.”



ACTU sources said the union movement didn’t bother responding to questions from the Australian any more because they were “irrelevant”.



Greenhill, who said he had not caught up with his old political mate in 20-odd years, said she had been level-headed and sensible when she was a student politician.



“In the past week the Australian newspaper has wrongly accused Sally of being a communist, an antisemite and now a fraud,” Greenhill said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.

“In all my dealings with her, Sally was a committed, progressive and level-headed leader and I am sure she will bring these values into her new role at the ACTU.”

The Australian addressed the error by publishing a second story on Wednesday afternoon with the headline “Sally McManus clarifies Macquarie Uni student union past”. The original story is still online.

“New ACTU secretary Sally McManus has sought to clear the air about her past life in student politics, saying she headed the university union which was responsible for providing services including the students’ bar,” Norington wrote.

“Ms McManus said today she was president of the university union at Macquarie University in Sydney’s northwest for two years in the early 1990s and during that time the body had taken the difficult and unpopular decision to ban smoking in the student bar.

“Following a report in the Australian today that no records existed of Ms McManus heading her university’s student union representative council, Ms McManus said Macquarie University had two student bodies – the university union and the students’ council.”

Norington has been approached for comment.