This partial transcript of Professor Barry Spurr's emails was first published in New Matilda .
Their publication on this blog has been guided by an application of the MEAA journalists' code of ethics and the Press Council privacy principles. As a person appointed to review the national curriculum, Spurr is a person whose activities are of public interest and the matters in the emails reflect on his capacity to perform those public duties.
DATE: September 21, 2012
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Friend, University colleague, University colleague, University colleague, Friend, Unknown person
SUBJECT: High class
Good series on SBS about the Amish in these weeks. Once in their lives, as late teens, they go in a group from Pennsylvania into 'the world' for a few weeks. The progam showed four of them, two boys, two girls, going to the UK this year for this excursion. The juxtaposition of these impeccably mannered, demurely dressed, softly spoken, intelligent (and not self-righteous or morbidly pious) youngsters up against the reality of modern-day Brit was as fascinating as it was terrible.
This week came the most ironic moment of all. They had gone to spend a week with some minor nobility in their Scottish castle. These toffs consisted of divorced mum and four teenagers - the two girls looking and sounding like low-grade Soho whores (caked with makeup and mascara, grubby denim micro-mini-skirts and 'you know', 'yeah', 'like', 'kinda wow' etc) and the boys, monosyllabic scruffy slobs.
After every segment, the program has the Amish youngsters commenting on what they're experiencing and this week's took the cake, in this context. It was one of the Amish girls, pretty, fresh-faced, squeaky-clean, beautifully, softly spoken in grammatical sentences and, of course, in a long dress and hair neatly groomed. And this is what she said, while the whores and louts were lounging and cavorting in the distant background: 'We have been very privileged to meet these high class British people. Their world is very different from ours. I never thought I would come to such a place and meet such people of the high class'. High class!!
Hilarious, and she was so innocent I don't think she saw the irony of her well-mannered phrase, as the scum of the earth were behind her. The only class act was hers.
DATE: February 23, 2013
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Friend
SUBJECT: Look at 11.20 - no fatties, darkies or chinky-poos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCWQGe_-Jno
DATE: April 5, 2013
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: University colleague, Friend, University colleague, University colleague, University colleague, Friend, Friend
SUBJECT: The latest indignity and my response below it.
Professor Spurr forwards on an email from a disability services administrative assistant to his friends and colleagues.
The email is addressed to a student with disability needs, and is CCed to Professor Spurr.
It includes the student’s name and identifying information, and reads:
Dear [Student],
Barry has been in contact with Disability Services regarding your assessment adjustment request; subsequently, Barry has approved a one week extension instead of the standard extension period [which new Matilda understands is two weeks].
Please find attached an updated copy of your asssement adjustment notice reflecting this.
Kind regards [Name Redacted].
Professor Spurr then responds to the administrative assistant – this below and the email above is what he shares with colleagues and friends, under the subject heading ‘The latest indignity and my response below it’.
Dear [administrative assistant],
Thank you for this but would please note in future that when referring to me in correspondence with undergraduates my title and surname are to be used – Professor Spurr. I have not given permission for my first name to be used and I do not want wish it to be so used in official communications with students.
Yours sincerely
Barry Spurr
DATE: 24 May 2013
FROM: Friend
TO: Barry Spurr
SUBJECT: Redacted
Goodness, what different times.
Today, [A PERSON] told me of a problem at [A COMPANY]. Some harlot [A WOMAN] went back to a room party when her key would not work and waiting, went to sleep on the bed. Another [PERSON AT THAT COMPANY] put his penis in her mouth, as you do, and she called the police.
I told [A PERSON] she was a worthless slut who will now cause this poor chap, who certainly did not adhere to Debretts , years of imprisonment with big black chaps because she is a worthless slut who should not have been there. In Dubai, she would be locked up as well. The muzzies are not all wrong about this.
Barry Spurr replies:
Reeling from that [redacted] story. Ye gods. I think she needs a lot put in her mouth, permanently, and then stitched up.
Red Lantern is excellent and [a friend] had reserved for us 'the special table', partitioned off from the rabble. We must go there some time. Told me a story about a [woman who chose to gender transition to] a man, from [Female name] to [Male name].
I'll give you the full details when next we meet. Not having children preserves you from these alarms and excursions. The poor mother, in her 80s, is still alive and struggling to come to terms with this, as you can imagine. 'Stop calling me [woman’s name], Ma, I'm [a man’s name] now. [Woman’s name] doesn't exist anymore' [all this in a bass voice].*
How does next Friday 31st look for the much postponed celebration dinner, at Atelier, I suggest.
DATE: Sunday, 13 October 2013
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Friend
Subject: Ancient wisdom
Down the road, three years ago, the government, in its program of assimilating Aborigines into the community, bought up a dear little terrace - with your and my money - and gave it to an Aboriginal family. From day one, it began its decline (I walk past every day and noted this) and it is now utterly destroyed, with its contents and smashed up fabric vomited out onto [a street], the pile impregnated with empty booze bottles, awaiting the Council special garbage collection for trashed housing.
These are the people whose 'ancient wisdom', our V-C says, we should respect, and to whom we apologise on every possible occasion and whose rich culture we bow down before, confessing our wickedness in our mistreatment of them.
All very well when you're living in a mutli-million [sic] dollar mansion in Woolahra, to spout these feel-good emotions from a safe distance.
I wonder how he'd like these manifestations of ancient wisdom living next door. The immediate neighbours tell me it has been hell on earth and, of course, their property values have plummeted.
They're living next door to a rubbish tip: human and material.
DATE: December 12, 2013
FROM: Barry Spurr
SENT: University Colleague, University Colleague, Friend
SUBJECT: Chancellor resigns from disastrous QBE
This email has had to be entirely redacted, because it attacks the Chancellor of Sydney University, refers to her as an “appalling minx” and includes a substantial amount of defamatory statements. Notably it was shared among two senior university staff members.
SENT: 12 January 2014
FROM: Friend
TO: Barry Spurr
SUBJECT: FW: Perth 1954 promo. A must see for us all.
A very pleasant image. Beautifully narrated and everone [sic] well dressed
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=b2TaLGlj6ig&vq=large#t=27
Barry Spurr replies:
No Abos, Chinky-poos, Mussies, graffiti, piercings, jeans, tattoos. BCP in all Anglican chruches; Latin Mass in all Roman ones. Not a woman to be seen in a sanctuary anywhere. And no obese fatsoes. All the kiddies slim and bright eyed. Now utterly gone with the wind.
DATE: January 26, 2014
From: Barry Spurr
To: University Colleague, Friend
Subject: Osrayan of the Year
• An Aborigine
• A sportsman [footballer]
• His mother one of the 'Stolen Generation'
Ticking all the correct boxes. Now all we need to know is that he suffers from 'depression' and has a disability, and he becomes the complete role model for Australians today.
In his acceptance speech, all he talked about was racism and every time he said 'Australia' he mispronounced it.
Abbott wants this so he can combine it with the inclusion of Abos in the Constitution later this year - his version of Rudd's apology and perpetuating the black armband - to show that he really is a sensitive guy after all.
In reply to a friend’s email, Spurr then rails about asylum seekers. He replies to a suggestion that people from “safe middle class homes” marched in support of Aboriginal reconciliation, noting:
Oh, how true. Same with the asylum seekers. ‘Not in my manicured backyard thank you’. I remember [a person] waxing self-righteously lyrical about the appalling treatment of the Abos, sitting back in his luxurious house in the leafy glades at Mosman, in between sips of vintage chardonnay. One of the serpents at the Methodist occasion was [a person’s daughter]. Oh, all puffed up and pleased with herself. I gave her such a look.
DATE: January 27, 2014
FROM: Friend
TO: Barry Spurr
SUBJECT: [Redacted]
What is the etiquette when one receives a linked in request? Or LinkedIn might be more accurate.
I refuse to subscribe to any social network. Should I send a separate email to the requestor, in this case [from a university professor overseas]. Others have also turned up and I have ignored them.
Barry Spurr replies:
Ignore them. I get one every day. The linked in machine is constantly matching people and the salutation: 'Hi, I'd like to connect with you on linked in' comes not form the person but Linked in. Early on, I got one from a colleague here whom I did not know but I replied, and when there was no reply, I contacted him directly and he said that he had not asked to connect with me and as there was no reason why we would connect, that was that.
Lots of people will be connected in The Fullness, by a surgical procedure (resembling stapling) reversing that which is used to separate Siamese twins: Abo-lover Tony Abbott and Adam Goodes; Quentin Bryce and Bill Shorten – oh, it's going to be lovely.
DATE: April 4, 2014 4:53pm
FROM: Barry Spurr
SENT TO: Friend
SUBJECT: Alumni as singular
Today I went to the first graduation ceremony at which I have seen the new Chancellor in action. Apart from the fact that she is utterly lacking in any ceremonial gravitas and speaks in mangled often difficult-to-hear sentences, she managed to use ‘alumni’ as a singular noun: ‘I was very proud of alumni who won an award,’ she said.
Now, this woman has a BEc (Pass) degree, so one does not expect her to be a skilled Latinist. But if there are two words that would, one imagines, be repeatedly on her lips, they would be ‘alumnus’ and ‘alumni’. And she doesn’t know the difference.
But, hey, she’s a WOMAN and from the Big End of Town, so who cares about such academic pedantry at a conferring of degrees ceremony. Lighten up! It’s only a university after all.
DATE: April 24, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: University colleague, University colleague, University colleague, University colleague, Friend
SUBJECT: something to lift one's spirits in the midst of the Aboriginal National Curriculum
- and unlike our Chancellor, this fellow knows the singular of 'alumni' and the courtesies of gentlemanly address (now unknown to virtually everybody: cf 'Hey Barry'
[Professor Spurr then forwards on a letter from a student applying to the university].
DATE: April 19, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Friend, Friend
Subject: Churchill in California
The Californian high school English curriculum has arrived (as Pyne wants me to compare ours with other countries). Another 300 pages of reading! Amongst the senior year texts for study are Churchill's wartime speeches. Imagine setting that for the NSW HSC English. And whereas the local curriculuim has the phrase 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander' on virtually every one of its 300 pages, the Californian curriculum does not ONCE mention native Americans and has only a very slight representation of African-American literature (which, unlike Abo literature, actually exists and has some distinguished productions).
[A fellow University academic] tells me that at her grand-daughter's school – [in Sydney] - every day begins with an acknowledgement of the orignal [sic] owners of the land. No flag-raising or national anthem - just this, every day. On the school's website, it proclaims that it prides itself on its 'atheletics' [sic] program.
If ever an education system needed a bomb under it, it's ours
DATE: Apr 24, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Friend, Friend, University colleague,
SUBJECT: ANOTHER Welcome to Country and performance
Today, in the wake of yesterday's performance at Ayer's Rock, at the parliamentary reception for the royals, there will be a 'Welcome to Country' and the post-reception 'entertainment' will be by 'well-known Aboriginal singer, Wingabanga Gumberumbul'. Then, to the National Portrait Gallery where will be unveiled, by the royals, a portrait of - guess who? - Wingabanga Gumberumbul.
We have thousands of brilliant young Australian musicians, including the wonderful Nicole Car (who would wear her bra under her dress), currently on the brink of an international operatic career. Why aren't they asked to perform?
Abbott's to blame for this. This is his day with them, his reception. He should have put his foot down and said, 'No more Abos'. But he's as gutless and hypocritical as the rest of them. No doubt Peta Whatsername said 'Do it Tony. It makes you look like a sensitive guy'.
DATE: 24th April, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Colleague, Friend, Friend
SUBJECT: FW: The University community remembers on Anzac Day
Even here [Barry Spurr forwards on a staff communication from University of Sydney which in part honours the Aboriginal contribution to the war efforts], indigenous contribution to militarism has to be mentioned, even though not a single aboriginal soldier from the university served in our armed forces for the simple reason that there weren’t any aboriginal students prior to Charlie Perkins in the 60s.
It seems that we’ve reached the point in Australia that nothing can be said or done officially without bringing aborigines into the mix.
DATE: Monday, 28 April 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: University colleague, University Colleague, University Colleague, University colleague, Friend, Unknown person SUBJECT: My estimate was generous
I have long said that about 10% of those currently enrolled at Australian universities should be at a university. James Athanasou argues today in tA voice of reason but the vested interests will smother these sensible suggestionshe Herald that 5% is the figure. I think he's closer to the mark, as standards continue to slide and degrees - especially generalist ones - become increasingly worthless:
A friend replies to Barry Spurr:
A voice of reason but the vested interests will smother these sensible suggestions
Barry Spurr replies:
He'll be derided as an elitist, fascist, misogynist - the usual litany. He's completely right. One day the Western world will wake up, when the Mussies and the chinky-poos have taken over.
DATE: May 2, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Colleague, Colleague, Friend, Friend
SUBJECT: A grandmother’s afternoon in our society
Today we picked up [a child] and I sat beside [another person] picking up her two grandsons, 7 and 8 I think. She had to take them to soccer. When [the child] run up to us I introduced her to the lady and asked her name so that [the child] could address her. She said [a name]. I said, No. I mean your last name. So reluctantly she said [her last name] as she realized I wanted [the child] not to call her by her first name. The idea of a [child] calling a granny [by their first name] just makes me sick. She is not [the child’s] buddy.
Before picking up [the child], we went to [an electronics store] for their DVD sale. The girl in charge of the DVD section was fat, unkempt, dressed in a low cut singlet with the tattoo EVIL on her breast. She had tattoos other places too, but I did not read them. I assume she is or was a druggie or even in jail and her job at [the store] pays a minimum wage. If I am wrong and she has always been an abstemious and proper citizen, then she is a pathetic Bogan of the worst kind.
The crassness and ignorance of Boganism is not going to turn around soon. But school could be the sole authoritative place to start. The churches and institutions looking after children have ruined to a considerable extent. So education from [a young age] on is the place to start.
DATE: June 1, 2014
FROM: Barry Spurr
TO: Unknown person, Friend, Colleague, Friend,
SUBJECT: There goes the neighbourhood
This email comes in reply to an email from a person which reads:
Hi Barry. Three couples were bidding. Sold for $1,735,000!!! Hard to tell the nationality of the new owners. He looked maybe Sri Lankan/Indian & she is an Austn. Early 30’s I’d guess. I think they will be good neighbours!
Barry Spurr adds the subject line ‘There goes the neighbourhood’ before writing:
Sri Lankan!! Info on [a couple’s] house sale yesterday from a neighbour.