Is there any place free of bullying?

Government regulators were bullied to approve practices that nearly bought two of our four major banks to their knees. As a government officer I started an inquiry into banking regulation in 1990. Without support from a notable politician I would have been intimidated into silence.

There was no federal whistle-blower protection and there is still none to protect those in the private sector. Moreover there is nothing in any anti-discrimination act, in any State, to protect Australian citizens from political discrimination. Such behaviour is rife in certain universities where membership of a union and/or a left wing party ensures promotion.

Returning to the hallowed halls of academia in pursuit of freedom of expression, I found my supervising professor trying to direct my PhD to echo his views; resorting to the extent of stifling any attempt to publish.

To explain, my research was directed at developing optimum regulatory systems for banks and others operating in the finance sector. My research and views were ridiculed by those advocating the Chicago School of Economics line that markets are efficient and best left to their own devices, and not regulated.

My viewpoints were directly repugnant to those lobbying for liberalisation of financial regulation. I was a lone voice and suffered direct discrimination in terms of work hours, rooms, grants and promotion.

Publishers choose editors of journals according to citations by others. If a university such as Chicago wishes to enforce its views, it promotes those who only cite their views. By this method, existing views are perpetuated and bullying of challengers to conventional thinking, suffer discrimination and manipulated sackings – witness Joe Stiglitz.

Another method of bullying and intimidation involves the continual refusal to publish any works by countercyclical thinkers. The Chicago School of Economics, which believes in no or minimal regulation of financial markets, has secured positions on all editorial boards and bullies those who think differently by refusing to publish their views. In a world of publish or perish this is a death knell.

This goes a long way to explaining the present state of affairs in the financial system. Those decrying deregulation were bullied into silence.

Women with children and aging parents are particularly vulnerable to this form of coercion. They are then bullied to take all the menial positions and unfavourable teaching loads. This perpetuates their inferior status.

It is my experience that the fifth estate is perhaps the only relief valve in this cycle. Bullying of academics, politicians, corporate officers and regulation has bought us to the worst financial crisis since 1929.

Academia should be the place where the truth can be told and discovered. To me it is far worse than the private sector. At least there, the profit motive acts to mitigate against bullying to some extent.

It is now almost 2450 years since Socrates was executed for speaking his mind. His crime was two "impious" acts: "Failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities."