Former Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Simon Maddocks was paid a total of more than $1.17 million in wages, entitlements and termination payments when he left the role last year, following university losses of more than $93 million in the preceding five years, annual reports show.

The terms, precise nature and circumstances of Dr Maddocks’s resignation and termination payments have not been confirmed and would be known only to a limited few in the university.

CDU’s board, while led by Dr Maddocks, had made costly decisions during his seven year tenure, including buying the loss-making Cairns Business College and the Cairns Languages Centre, and according to a source, there were too many highly paid executives on the books.

The insider also cited the $9 million spent on the new building at the Darwin Waterfront, and entering into the $151 million Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility loan for a new $223 million CBD campus, increasing the number of campuses in Darwin and Palmerston to four, and the increased costs to the university that came with them.

The source alleged the former vice-chancellor had a year to go on his contract, but Dr Maddocks fiercely refuted that he was sacked or asked to resign, and denied any assertion that any of the decisions of CDU under his tenure had caused financial problems, saying he left for family reasons and the prospect of not being able to see new grandchildren in Adelaide because he did not know how long COVID-19 restrictions would be in place.

“I frankly find the tone and nature of the assertions/conjecture malicious, and grossly offensive,” he wrote in an email.

“I had indicated that it was the right time to return to SA to put family first, and gave notice that I would do that at the end of that year.

“CDU was in an excellent position for my successor to move forward with on many fronts.”

Dr Maddocks’s LinkedIn profile says he is open to offers of work as a chief executive officer or a board member.

Current CDU vice-chancellor Scott Bowman said in a written statement the salaries in CDU’s financial statements reflected the range appropriate for senior university executives.

“The remuneration of executives reported in the financial statements for the range of more than $1 million includes the VC salaries [sic] for that year and any separation payments due,” he wrote.

The 2020 annual report showed Dr Maddocks was paid in the band between $1,170,000 to $1,184,999 but it noted this included any termination benefits.

The 2018 annual report showed Prof Maddocks was paid between $615,000 and $629,000 a year, but the 2019 annual report showed his remuneration dropped to between $550,000 and $564,000 following some of the institution’s worst financial years in recent history.

Dr Maddocks said his remuneration in 2019 did not decrease because of the financial performance as was reported in the NT News last year, but the lower figure was the result of him restructuring his package.

“You are asking about personal and confidential information in relation to my remuneration,” he said.

“In the interest of appropriate transparency however, I will say simply that I chose to undertake some restructuring of my package in 2019 that is probably reflected in the way detail is captured and presented in financial statements. It was at my instigation. I did not have a pay cut. Nothing more to add.

“As to 2020, the figure presented includes a number of benefits including leave and other contractual elements that were due and settled with or as part of my departure at 31/12/20.

“As the financial statements indicate, for staff benefits they may include amounts to be settled anytime in the subsequent 12 months.”

His salary, as presented in the annual report, peaked in 2016 at between $645,000 and $649,999.

The annual report did not list his 2020 salary separately, but he told the media in late April he was taking a 20 per cent cut for the rest of the year because of the impact of COVID-19 on the university’s finances. In his statement, Dr Maddocks said he did take that pay cut until the end of the year.

As for there being too many highly paid executives, the 2019 annual report showed in that year there was an executive paid $550,000 to $564,999, another being paid $550,000 to $564,999, another receiving $435,000 to $449,999, and another receiving $390,000 to $404,999. There were three additional staff members paid more than $300,000 and three more receiving more than $200,000.

The 2020 annual report showed five executives were paid between $300,000 and $359,999, and only the vice-chancellor above that.

On October 21, the NT Independent reported provost and vice-president Professor Mike Wilson, and deputy vice-chancellor and vice-president of operations Meredith Parry, the organisation’s two most senior executives, were made redundant in a move another source said had left the university in shock.

An overview of CDU in the last few years

Dr Maddocks’s time as vice-chancellor at CDU had been during a tumultuous time for CDU. He started in the role in March 2014, with the university posting a $22.14 million deficit in 2015, after years of profit, followed by university deficits of $21.9 million in 2016, $19.5 million in 2017, $21.3 million in 2018 and $8.7 million in 2019.

“The financial challenges at CDU have been exaggerated on many occasions for the size of the operation, and the inherent nature of the problem certainly predated my tenure,” Dr Maddocks said.

“The senior leadership team was charged by the university council with addressing those challenges, and we did. When I left CDU it was in a solid positive financial position with bright prospects for future growth. I am very proud of all that we achieved.”

Despite the warning about the impact of COVID-19 on revenue, the annual report shows the university posted a surprising $42.8 million surplus for 2020, compared to a deficit of $8.8 million in the previous year.

However, almost $40 million of that came from government grants tied to building works.

There was $25.1 million in grants for capital projects, including $9.9 million from the federal and Northern Territory governments for the new city campus, and $2.22 million for VET training facilities.

There was also a $14.3 million land gift from the NT Government, in the form of the car park next to the Darwin Post Office owned by Darwin Council upon which the university is building its new campus.

The university also had a $14 million drop in expenditure, which it said was due to recruitment deferral and other “operating activities to conserve budget in response to the COVID-19 pandemic”. Of this, there was a decrease of about $8 million in academic staff costs.

“The University also undertook structural changes to its workforce both in the teaching and administration areas to achieve efficiency and ensure longer term sustainability,” the report stated.

In the 2019 annual report signed off on June 25 of last year, it had estimated a decline revenue between $20 million to $30 million for 2020.

‘COVID-19 made the timing right to get a new vice-chancellor’: Henderson

According to a source, the timing of the announcement of Dr Maddocks’s departure in September seemed “strange” as the university began building its new campus in October, but Dr Maddocks said staying and overseeing the construction of the new campus would not have been important.

“The deal had been done for the city campus by the university council and plans were well advanced – my presence or otherwise was not going to be important in the progression of that development,” he said.

Former Labor chief minister Paul Henderson, who was appointed as chancellor to head the CDU board in March 2019, did not return a phone call from the NT Independent to discuss Dr Maddocks’s departure.

But in announcing it, he thanked Dr Maddocks for his dedication in “further positioning CDU as a leading university” and said “the unprecedented disruption in the university sector due to COVID-19 made the timing right for a succession plan to be put in place”.

“I want to thank Simon for seven years of hard work that has put CDU in a strong position – he has led a significant restructure of the university which is nearing completion. Simon will leave CDU not long after turning the sod at the site of the new CDU city campus,” Mr Henderson said at the time.

The 2020 annual report showed the university made Prof Wilson acting, and then interim, vice-chancellor. Coming from a post in the United Arab Emirates, he had only started at CDU on October 28, 2020.

Another source said Dr Maddocks’s notion that the $150 million loan to build the CBD campus would be paid for by attracting an additional 5,000 international students was flawed, saying the income from those students would only ever pay the interest on the loan, not the principal.

In 2019, former CDU Professor of Governance and Head of the Schools of Law and Business Don Fuller told the NT News he had written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison — expressing his concerns over the proposed central business district development, stating the university should focus on managing and overcoming its financial difficulties — before taking on an “expensive, high risk, new infrastructure project”.

“It is far from clear how such (international student) numbers are to be attracted to the university,” he said.

CDU’s Northern Institute Professor Rolf Gerritsen said one problem created by Dr Maddocks was expanding the number of campuses, thus increasing running costs.

“He massively increased the costs with the university now having four campuses in greater Darwin,” he said.

In October last year, the NT News reported that Ernst & Young had completed a report that showed CDU has a proposed 10-year master plan to remove 27,5000 sqm of facilities at its main Casuarina campus. That equates to about 6.8 acres of buildings or 2.75 hectares.

The paper reported the university as suggesting $25 million from the Darwin City Deal had been allocated to demolishing buildings at the Casuarina campus and for a ‘revitalisation’.

‘I’m an easy person for everybody to kick’: Vice-chancellor

In response to the 2019 losses, Dr Maddocks made cuts to the College of Nursing and Midwifery faculty, its libraries, and he proposed to cut 35 qualifications and 16 permanent staff in its the Vocational Education and Training sector. However, later VET cuts were put on hold.

When it came time to make the announcement to the media and explain it to the public, Dr Maddocks was absent with no explanation and Professor Sue Carthew had to face the media in the acting vice-chancellor role.

In August of that year, the NT Government gave the university $7 million as a one-off payment to keep the VET courses going the same week as an Auditor-General’s report tabled in NT Parliament showed CDU was propping up the Cairns Business College and Cairns Language Centre, among other private entities, although they had an almost $2 million deficit. He also laid off academics, including professors at its Casuarina campus.

The 2020 annual report shows the language centre was closed last year, and CDU wrote off $5,463,295, owing to it; the business college was sold for $50,000, and the International College of Hotel Management was also sold.

In September 2019, Dr Maddocks said the 2017 cap on the Commonwealth Grant Scheme, which froze university funding at 2017 levels from 2018-20, was crippling the university. He also said the rising costs of course delivery and staff salary costs were pushing the university to the financial brink.

At the time, Dr Fuller, who also has a PhD in economics, said the cuts reflected on the financial incompetence of senior staff.

“Financial management is all about getting the right programs together and being able to manage your budget,” he said.

“A major reason for the financial problems is the focus on the wrong programs, ones that don’t benefit the Territory.”

That month, the university wheeled Dr Maddocks out in an “exclusive” interview with the NT News to deal with the criticisms.

“I’m an easy person for everybody to kick, to say ‘oh this person doesn’t know what he’s doing’,” he told the paper.

“My job is to lead the university through a strategy and a strategic plan which was developed in conjunction with all of our staff, everybody involved in every year of the university had a chance to contribute to our vision and what we thought we needed to do to implement that vision.”

“Universities are about research trying new ideas. Not every research project is successful.

“I will be the first to admit from time to time we will get things wrong.”

‘Your sources clearly do not understand decision making in a university’: Maddocks

In a November 2020 press release, shortly before Dr Maddocks’s departure, the university announced under deputy vice-chancellor Ms Parry’s name, that it would axe 77 full-time positions or five per cent of all staff in a restructure of Vocational Education and Training and Higher Education. It cut 19 VET courses out of 199 in the process and said it would save $9 million to help balance the budget.

A third well-placed source said the number of redundancies would have been double that, and there were a large number of staff who also left the university because, they said, the culture was so bad.

The NT News reported that in a Christmas message to members last year, NTEU NT industrial officer Heinz Schmitt had written that he’d been at CDU for 15 years under three different vice-chancellors, and had “never seen such carnage”.

“Hundreds of jobs lost, endless bad investment decisions that have cost the university millions, an increase of senior roles and subsequent costs and a staff morale at its lowest in all that time,” Mr Schmitt is said to have written in an email to members.

Dr Maddocks refuted all the problems raised by sources to the NT Independent including by Prof Gerritsen and Dr Fuller, and the message by Mr Schmitt.

“Your sources clearly do not understand decision making in a university. The topics raised in an attempt to malign my integrity are decisions made by the university council, not a vice-chancellor,” he wrote.

“There is significant due diligence behind those decisions and the misrepresentation as presented in your request for comment is offensive and without factual base.”