Minister’s veto power on ARC grants is political interference (Advocate 25 03)

The revelations of the shameful intervention by Simon Birmingham, when he was Minister for Education, to politically interfere with research funding should appal everyone, but unfortunately most outside the sector will pay little attention. His actions, in secretly rejecting eleven applications that had been approved by the Australian Research Council (ARC), re-visit the actions of Brendan Nelson in 2005-2006, and demonstrate again this Government’s readiness to kowtow to the extreme right – now referred to, within their own party and more broadly, as their ‘base’. More...