The State Library of New South Wales’s state librarian and chief executive has signalled he will retire, amid staff unrest over senior management and the acquisition of a controversial painting of Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
Dr John Vallance, who served as principal of the prestigious Sydney Grammar School for almost two decades before the Liberal government appointed him to one of the state’s most senior public service positions, told library staff in an email dated 14 February that he would leave “sometime in July or August” to concentrate “on my own work”.
