THE American children of Dr. David Rindos should receive a $200,000 ex-gratia payment from the University of WA, a State MP said yesterday.
Labor MP Mark Nevill said the university had a responsibility to provide the two teenage children of the late academic with $100,000 each.
His call came after the release this week of a parliamentary committee report that found Dr. Rindos was not given a fair go by UWA's administrators when they denied him his job.
Mr. Nevill, who first raised the dispute between Dr. Rindos and UWA in Parliament in 1995, said: "The chancellor, Judge Kennedy, and outgoing vice-chancellor, Professor Fay Gale, should write to Dr Rindos' son and daughter immediately and apologise on behalf of UWA and its senate for their failure to accord him the just treatment the parliamentary committee found he was so unfairly denied.
"The sooner the apologies are sent to Dr Rindos' children, along with an ex-gratia payment, the sooner UWA will be able to regain its reputation as an internationally respected institution committed to truth, academic freedom and the seeking of wisdom."
Speaking from New York, Dr Rindos' former wife, Susan, said she did not want to comment but had made arrangements to get a copy of the parliamentary report.
Professor Gale said: "The university stands by its decision to deny tenure to Dr Rindos; we consider the report badly flawed and therefore Mr Nevill's proposition is ill-founded.
"There is nothing contained in the report which materially affects the decision to deny Dr Rindos tenure.
"The report concludes a wasteful and unnecessary exercise.
"This matter should never have got to the Parliament. It has cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.
"It has taken so long to get to this point that the report has almost lost its relevance.
"Naturally, as a responsible institution, we will examine it to see if any particular aspect could assist in the management of UWA.
"We have always held that once the issue reached senior administration it was managed properly."
Mr Nevill said: "UWA's wounded response to the report really is just a series of assertions which its administrators have no hope of substantiating.
"They are very fortunate Dr Rindos is not alive to launch an action against them.
"They are also lucky that a detailed critique of a UWA senate report has not yet been published."