A University of Queensland undergraduate suspended two weeks ago is suing the university, chancellor Peter Varghese and vice-chancellor Peter Høj for $3.5 million
Lawyers for history student Drew Pavlou, 21, on Thursday filed a lawsuit in the Queensland Supreme Court seeking damages for breach of contract and fiduciary duty, negligence, defamation, deceit and civil conspiracy.
A university spokeswoman said: “When we receive a formal notice of claim we will consider it and respond through the appropriate channels.”
Mr Pavlou was told by the university administration two weeks ago he would be suspended over 11 charges that have not been made public and are connected to behaviour during his campaigns against the university’s close relationship with the Chinese government. Students from China are the university’s largest single source of income.
He is appealing the suspension to a committee of the university’s governing senate. He is an elected member of the senate.
Last July, Mr Pavlou was attacked at an on-campus protest by operatives for the Chinese Communist Party who had “military or paramilitary training” acting on the orders of the Chinese consul-general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, an incident that wasn’t investigated by university authorities, the lawsuit alleges.
“The said CCP operatives were organised and directed to infiltrate and
disrupt the anti-CCP protest, and to attack and assault persons peaceably
participating in the anti-CCP protest, either by Xu or alternatively, at the direction of Xu,” it says.
After the confrontation, a university official sent a draft public statement to the Chinese consulate in Brisbane “for review”, according to the lawsuit.
“UQ thereby attempted to co-ordinate with Xu the response by UQ to the 24 July 2019 incident,” it says.