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as part of managing that conflict of interest. An appropriate HEY RUFUS... WHAT’S UP Deloitte action to take. The University Council maintains that Professor Rufus Black appropriately declared his conflict of interest in March to the WITH DELOITTE? University Council. If Professor Rufus Black did appropriately and

Ella Vanderzwan Togatus Deputy Editor-In-Chief

Hey Rufus… What’s Up With Deloitte? - Ella Vanderzwan It seems our vice chancellor is determined to stay in the news cycle. On September 1st 2025, Vice Chancellor Rufus Black took up a position on Deloitte Australia’s executive board. Deloitte Australia is a company UTAS has contracted multiple times, meaning the appointment caused a clear conflict of interest. As such, Professor Black declared it, right? The University Council claims that he did, but no formal documentation has been found, despite a right to information request into the affair. Furthermore, the University Council voted down Professor Black’s offer to offset his UTAS pay and only approved his conflict of interest management plan twenty days after his role at Deloitte had started. Deloitte Australia is a company that UTAS frequently engages for “audit, assurance, consulting and tax services”. Recently, Deloitte Australia was in the news because they had to partially refund an Australian government contract after providing the government a report with AI-generated errors. Robert Hogan from The UTAS Papers obtained 163 documents in a right to information, a legal process that allows citizens to obtain information on government agencies. While UTAS is not a government agency, it is a public authority under the Right to Information Act 2009. These documents revealed a few interesting things about the process of Vice Chancellor Rufus Black getting this role. These obtained documents revealed that the management plan for Rufus’s conflict of interest was filed fifteen days (9) after his start date in the position that required this conflict of interest management plan.This means the actionable steps to ensure Professor Black would not act in the interests of Deloitte were officially filed fifteen days after he started in that position. This management plan was approved on the 21st of September, twenty days after Professor Black started his role with Deloitte. This is a rather large oversight from the University Council and Professor Rufus Black, and there is no explanation as to why it was processed after Professor Black started his new role. There is also a significant amount of grey area surrounding the initial conflict of interest when Vice Chancellor Rufus Black was originally approached with the role. UTAS’s own policies against conflict of interests states that: “University Community members must immediately declare any actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest”. This means he was obliged to declare this conflict of interest nearly straight away, especially because of how frequently UTAS and Deloitte engage in business. The University Council quickly decided that Professor Black could not be involved with any decision regarding

officially declare his conflict of interest with Deloitte, this document was not released in Hogan’s right to information and was not included in the 163 pages of documents. This could be because that right to information was out of the scope of the official declaration. However, due to the unknown nature of the agreement, the University Council could be referring to an informal conversation or agreement, which would violate UTAS’s own conflict of interest policies. Without an official document it is difficult to know what occurred. Furthermore, Professor Rufus Black has not disclosed how much this Deloitte board position paid. Originally Professor Rufus Black offered to offset his Deloitte board stipend against his $1.11 million UTAS salary. The minutes of a UTAS Council meeting on the 27th of June 2025 reveal that this was voted down by the University Council who deemed it “inappropriate”, due to the fact Black’s Vice Chancellor role remained unaffected. This means that Black has retained both his UTAS salary and his Deloitte salary. Not enough information has been given about Rufus Black’s appointment to Deloitte Australia, and I urge the university and University Council to release information regarding the official conflict of interest declaration, their conflict management plan and why the plan was lodged fifteen days after Black started in his role after months of knowledge he would take this role. If UTAS would like to become a nation-wide leader in something more than sustainability, their own transparency and self-governance is a good place to start. For links to where the original sources were obtained from please check out our website for more information.

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