Education ministers will no longer be able to unilaterally veto research grants after Greens and independent senators on Thursday helped pass a government bill that transfers final say on almost $900 million in annual grants to a new independent board.
The bill, which passed the lower house last month, was opposed by the Coalition, which has used the veto powers to stop expert recommended grants in the past on “national interest” and national security grounds.
The changes to the Australian Research Council Act 2001 will also establish a board at the agency to take responsibility for final grant decisions and inserts more clarity on the purpose of the agency into the legislation.
The Minister will still need to approve funding guidelines and retains the ability to approve some grants for designated research programs like the ARC Centres of Excellence, Industrial Transformation Training Centres and Industrial Transformation Research Hubs.
An effective veto right will remain for security, defence or international relations concerns.
Labor only committed to removing the wider veto power after an independent review of the Australian Research Council (ARC) last year found ministers’ “arbitrary interventions have been a widespread source of despair” for researchers and undermined trust in the agency.
The Opposition had warned removing the ministerial responsibility could allow the ARC board to go “on a frolic” and approve grants “irresponsibly”, but lost the Senate vote on Thursday.
“Despite protests by the government that it is taking the so-called politics out of the ARC, what it is actually doing is removing itself from any accountability in relation to a very large amount of funds which are spent in the name of the taxpayer,” shadow education minister and Victorian senator Sarah Henderson said this week.
“This is not only lazy and unacceptable but most improper.”
Amendments agreed earlier this week in the Senate will see board appointments reflect the diversity of the general community, explicit support for academics and quality jobs in the purpose of the ARC, a review of the board within two years, and a requirement for researchers in funded projects to declare conflicts of interest.
Other successful amendments include increasing the potential ARC board size from five to seven, putting a timeframe on communicating any changes to funding decisions, and requiring funded projects to disclose the nature of the employment of its researchers.
The Greens lost out on some amendments but supported the bill, with the party’s education spokesperson and former researcher Mehreen Faruqi describing it as “a welcome step in a move towards a more independent ARC”.
Senator Faruqi was unsuccessful in her own bill to remove the veto powers in 2022, shortly after the former acting education minister Stuart Robert rejected six peer-reviewed ARC research grants on ‘national interest’ grounds.
The vetoes, revealed by the then government on Christmas eve in 2021, set off wide spread condemnation about political interference in the ARC.
“We know that, on at least six occasions, at least four ministers have intervened and rejected over 30 research proposals,” Senator Faruqi said.
“All four of those ministers have been Liberal ministers. So it’s no wonder there is a lot of huffing and puffing going on on that side of the chamber today as this avenue for ministerial intervention is finally removed.”
The Greens Senator said she is still concerned about a minister’s ability to stop projects for reasons of “international relations”.
“The Greens and many in the research community are concerned that this could provide the minister a much wider discretion to intervene in decisions of research funding… We think this is too broad a discretion and it presents a risk because this bill makes it an object of the ARC to include supporting Australian universities to conduct research and collaboration with international partners, so this could become a hinderance to that collaboration.”
After amendments to the bill were agreed in the Senate on Thursday, the bill was returned to the lower house and quickly passed.
Education minister Jason Clare in a statement on Thursday said the ARC had been “bedevilled by political interference and Ministerial delays” for the last decade.
“That has made it harder for universities to recruit and retain staff, and it has damaged our international reputation,” Mr Clare said.
“That’s not good for our universities. It’s not good for businesses either who work with our universities.”
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