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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Paul Karp Chief political correspondent

Controversial grant decisions by Coalition ministers eroded trust in Australian Research Council, review finds

Technician working with a pipette and test tubes in laboratory
Approvals for grants recommended by the ARC chief executive after an ‘extensive competitive and rigorous peer review process’ were withheld by ministers on at least six occasions, the review found. Photograph: poba/Getty Images. Posed by a model

Trust in the Australian Research Council has been “dramatically eroded” by controversial grant decisions made by former Coalition ministers, including Simon Birmingham, Dan Tehan and Stuart Robert, a review has found.

The review, released by the education minister Jason Clare on Thursday, called for more “checks and balances” on the power of ministerial intervention, limiting it to “the extraordinary circumstance of a potential threat to national security”.

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