A law professor at the centre of a leaked email controversy says the University of Melbourne attempted to expel him over his political expression after it unearthed allegedly racist emails which included references to First Nations people.
Dr Eric Descheemaeker launched legal action against Australia’s top-ranked university over his proposed dismissal earlier this year, alleging he was suspended over his political opinion.
It came after an email he wrote in August 2023 that claimed “‘Blak’ activists” were leading Melbourne Law School (MLS) to “destruction” was leaked and posted around the university’s Parkville campus, the court heard.
Descheemaeker’s lawyer, Dimitri Ternovski, told a federal circuit court hearing on Tuesday that the university’s move to dismiss him was partly motivated by “political opinion” that Descheemaeker expressed in email correspondence and that it had therefore breached the Fair Work Act.
The university’s HR department concluded at the time of Descheemaeker’s August 2023 email that the correspondence did not warrant an investigation and closed the matter – because the correspondence was protected by its academic freedom of expression policy, the court heard. But Ternovski said from then, the university conducted a “shadow investigation” into the matter.
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A complaint by a colleague of Descheemaeker’s – Prof Katy Barnett – in January 2024 sparked an investigation by the university which included a search of the law professor’s email account, the court heard. The search unearthed messages where Descheemaeker referred to Indigenous people as “poor little Abos”, while corresponding about the proposed voice to parliament referendum.
His lawyer told the court he was pointing out what he viewed as the racism of the yes campaign which he said represented Indigenous people as “helpless children”.
Descheemaeker also wrote that one of his Indigenous colleagues who recently left “looked extremely European to me” but said it was “apparently now a hate crime to say so”. In other messages he referred to Covid-19 as the “Wuhan virus”, which his lawyer said was deemed to be “somehow racist”.
An email sent from a workplace investigation specialist from the university’s provost office in January 2024 said Descheemaeker had engaged in an “emerging repeated pattern of inappropriate conduct”, the court heard.
Ternovski said Descheemaeker’s comments in the emails were political opinions and were not racist. He said his client’s correspondence was protected by the university’s academic freedom of expression policy.
Ternovski said the university used Barnett’s January 2024 complaint against his client as a guise to pursue the proposed dismissal this year.
Barnett’s complaints contained allegations including that Descheemaeker had a “worrying psychological profile – someone like that as a school shooter”. She also alleged Descheemaeker invited male students for drinks which could be “sexually motivated”, the court heard.
Ternovski said Barnett’’s complaints were “absurd” and Descheemaeker strongly denied the accusations.
He said despite Barnett’s “outrageous accusations” raising safety issues the university did not do anything about this aspect of the complaint.
The court heard a small part of the university’s defence, with the case adjourned until next year.
Marc Felman KC, representing the university, said Descheemaeker’s case did not analyse why the university was “animated” about the email, arguing it was not solely about the expression of a political opinion.
“Careful consideration needs to be given to why the university acted the way that it did,” he said.
Felman said one MLS academic Prof Jenny Morgan – who the court heard was involved in the investigation into Descheemaeker – said she found the August 2023 email “profoundly racist” and demeaning to her Indigenous colleagues.
He said there was no prima facie case that Descheemaeker’s proposed dismissal was unlawful. He described the case as “hopeless”.
Descheemaeker alleges the University of Melbourne had taken adverse action against him by suspending his employment due to his “political opinion”, court documents show.
Ternovski said the leaked August 2023 email – which was sent to the then head of the law school Prof Matthew Harding in response to the announcement of an Indigenous cultural safety review at the university – used “colourful language” to push back against “identity politics” increasingly being injected into the law school’s curriculum, and was meant only for the dean’s eyes.
In the leaked email, Descheemaeker wrote that there was “absolutely no end to where ‘Blak’ activists are meaning to take us – except destruction”.
The university has agreed to not terminate Descheemaeker’s employment or take any adverse action until the matter is heard at trial.
The hearing will return to the federal circuit court for a trial in February.
• This article was amended on 12 September 2025. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Descheemaeker’s August 2023 email did not name any academics.
