Jo-An Occhipinti for National Council

Associate Professor, Co-Director, Mental Wealth Initiative

Australian universities are at a crossroads, and academic staff need representation that can match the complexity of what we face.

Quality scholarship and teaching depend on conditions we increasingly cannot take for granted – secure jobs, manageable workloads in the face of rising productivity expectations, agency and dignity in our work, and a genuinely collegial culture. These are under pressure from converging structural changes: short-term funding, the mental health toll on staff, and the rapid integration of AI into academic labour.

These challenges are systemic, shared across staff, institutions, and the wider community, and cannot be addressed in isolation from one another.

I stand for a union that is both a strong advocate for members and a strategic actor – capable of leading on the longer-term reforms our sector needs, not only responding to immediate pressures.

My work at the Mental Wealth Initiative focuses on structural drivers of social and psychological wellbeing, job quality and security, and system resilience – all at risk if financial challenges and the transition to the age of AI are not managed well.

I would bring that systemic perspective to National Council, alongside an international view of how other systems are navigating the same transitions.

Vote for NTEU Renewal:
For the many not the few

For Secretary, vote Rebecca Connell.