Academics who say they are ‘pro-white’ and have ‘ethnic conception’ of Australia turn spotlight on Sydney’s Campion College | Australian universities

An influential Catholic college in Sydney is under investigation by the higher education regulator over a series of comments by two of its leading academics supporting the White Australia policy and calling for Anglo-Celtic Australians and Europeans to become a “supermajority” in the country.

Federal Education Minister Jason Clare, Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Teqsa), dean of studies Stephen McInerney and senior lecturer Assoc. Dr. He said he was “conducting an orientation process” with Campion College regarding a series of comments made by Stephen Chavura.

“There is no place for racism in higher education or anywhere else in our society,” Clare said.

The investigation came later Sydney Morning Herald McInerney and Chavura reportedly supported white nationalism, prompting Campion to investigate the duo while defending his employees’ free speech.

This year Chavura founded an Anglo-Celtic nationalist group for Australian men against “left-wing thugs”, “mass immigration and multiculturalism”, but was quoted in the Herald as denying that the group was sympathetic to Nazism or racism. He said a banner reading “Abolish the Jewish Lobby” at a neo-Nazi rally in Sydney last week was “political speech” that “must be protected”.

Chavura denied being a white nationalist and called the Herald’s reporting “an attempt to strangle the rising neoconservative movement in its infancy.”

McInerney, a former vice-president of the Ramsay Center for Western Civilization who also serves on Campion’s academic board and board of trustees, attended the March Australia rally in Sydney this August, where he warned of a “radical transformation” in Australia caused by “reckless levels of immigration”.

In X, McInerney describes himself as an “Australian nationalist”.

“I love the Commonwealth created by and for White Australians, and I want my people to thrive here again,” he says in his biography.

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This month he published a series of comments on

McInerney’s comments directly responded to concerns raised by Australian federal police acting assistant commissioner Nigel Ryan: In the parliamentary committee examining the 2025 elections On the offer of the National Socialist Network to enter politics.

McInerney reiterated to Guardian Australia that WAP should have the freedom to run in elections, not because it was “the ideal response to our nation’s problems” but because it was “in the interests of our democracy and the larger cause of the anti-mass immigration movement”.

He described himself as an “ethno-religious nationalist” but said that he did not hold personal political views in the classroom and that they formed “no part” of his curriculum, while adding that he would “be happy to explain or clarify my views” outside the university.

“Whether I vote for the White Australia Party or not will depend on what other parties are running. Ideally I would prefer to vote for a party that is pro-White and openly pro-Christian,” he said.

“I believe that the peoples of Europe, like all other races, should have their own homeland, in which they are the undisputed super-majority, and that it is legitimate for them to organize politically to preserve or achieve this reality,” he said.

He said his “ideological disagreements with National Socialism were a public matter.”

Chauvra also echoed his views, writing about X that “Anglo-Celtic” people should be the “overwhelming demographic majority” in Australia. “Yes, this is an ethnic understanding of the Australian nation and culture,” he wrote on Wednesday.

Campion, a small private institution in Sydney’s west, was founded in 2006 and offers degrees in history, literature, philosophy and theology “at the heart of the Western intellectual tradition”.

The academic freedom policy allows staff to “incorporate into their teaching content that may disturb or shock any student or class of students.”

University president Paul Morrissey did not respond to a request for comment, including the outcome of the investigation, but had previously told the Herald that his comments cited in Chavura and McInerney’s story were made personally and that there was no evidence he treated students unfairly.

He told the Herald that the college affirms “the dignity of every human being, regardless of race or religion” and believes in academic freedom, free speech and robust debate.

“A commitment to free speech is meaningless unless it extends to people saying unpopular and even some offensive things,” Morrissey was quoted as saying.

Despite his size, Campion has strong supporters. Trustees include Joseph de Bruyn and former Liberal minister Zed Seselja, who came under fire for comparing abortion to the “human cost of the second world war” at the Australian Catholic University’s graduation ceremony last year.

De Bruyn and Seselja did not respond to requests for comment.

This year the college opened a grand hall named after the late cardinal George Pell. Former Liberal prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, both long-standing supporters of the university, spoke at the event.

Howard declined to comment on McInerney’s public statements. “I maintain my respect for Campion College,” he said. Abbott did not respond to a request for comment.

Campion received $5 million in federal government funding under the former Coalition government and an additional $5 million for infrastructure from the state government between 2021 and 2024 as part of a $20 million capital works call.

A spokesman for Teqsa said compliance processes were concerned with “the extent to which Campion has fulfilled its obligations under the contract”. Higher Education Standards Framework (2021) They did not confirm which parts of the Framework were in question.

Mary Russell, CEO of Teqsa, He told the Senate investigation Last week, regarding higher education governance, the body demanded answers about how the university responded to issues of “safety, welfare, discrimination and inclusion”.

“If we feel they are not compliant and there is evidence of that, we will consider taking action in the form of conditions or other requirements,” he said.

Mehreen Faruqi, the Greens leader’s aide and higher education spokeswoman, was the subject of McInerney’s posts. “There should be no place for white supremacy and white nationalism in higher education,” he said. “The availability of public funding for this university is shocking.”