During the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee estimates hearing yesterday, under questioning by Senator Kim Carr, it was confirmed that the former Education Minister intervened by rejecting 11 humanities Australian Research Council grant applications.
“The Australian research funding system is highly respected around the world for its rigour and integrity” said Academy President Professor Joy Damousi FASSA FAHA. “Political interference of this kind undermines confidence and trust in that system.”
“The rigour of that system and the competition for funding means that only exceptional applications make it through the process” said Professor Damousi. “A panel of experts have judged these projects to be outstanding, yet that decision has apparently been rejected out of hand by the former Minister.”
“This interference damages Australia’s reputation on the world stage. Withdrawing funding by stealth threatens the survival of a strong humanities teaching and research sector, something no democratic society can do without.”
“The secrecy under which the Ministerial intervention has occurred should be of grave concern to the entire research community, not just to humanities scholars”, said Professor Damousi. “This interference is entirely at odds with a nation that prides itself on free and open critical enquiry.”
The Academy calls on the Morrison Government to restore the funding to the Humanities sector and support the high-quality research it has arbitrarily rejected. Political interference in the research grants process constitutes a fundamental attack on the integrity of our research funding system.
Media interviews with Academy President
- University fury over minister’s secret veto on research grants The Australian (paywall may apply) (27 October 2018)
- TripleR Melbourne Uncommon Sense programme (30 October 2018)
- ABC Radio Sydney Focus programme (31 October 2018)
- ABC RN Late Night Live (5 November 2018)
- Protecting the nation’s interests? Australian Book Review (23 November 2018)
Sector responses
Responses from the sector, presented alphabetically and not exhaustive:
- Academy of Science EMCR Forum
- Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
- Art Association of Australia and New Zealand
- Asian Studies Association of Australia
- Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes
- Australasian Association for Continental Philosophy
- Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
- Australasian Association of Digital Humanities
- Australasian Association of Philosophy
- Australasian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres
- Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities
- Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy
- Australian Academy of Science
- Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering
- Australian Council of Learned Academies
- Australian Historical Association
- Australian University Heads of English
- Group of Eight
- Innovative Research Universities
- National Tertiary Education Union
- Science and Technology Australia
- Universities Australia
