Ministers would no longer be responsible for approving competitive grants as part of legislation aimed at ending years of political interference in the Australian Research Council (ARC).
The bill, to improve the governance and independent decision-making of the ARC, was introduced on Wednesday after a review into the body which found trust had been “dramatically eroded” by controversial grant decisions made by former Coalition ministers.
The education minister, Jason Clare, said any future minister who tried to politicise the ARC would be subject to the scrutiny of parliament.
“Over the last decade, the ARC has been bedevilled by political interference and ministerial delays,” Clare said.
“That has made it harder for universities to recruit and retain staff, and it has damaged our international reputation.
“That’s not good for our universities. It’s not good for businesses either, who work with our universities.”
The review, led by the vice-chancellor and president of Queensland University of Technology and former chief executive of the ARC, Prof Margaret Sheil, was the first to examine the ARC since it was established in 2001.
It found at least six projects had been unfairly blocked by former ministers including Simon Birmingham, Brendon Nelson, Stuart Robert and Dan Tehan, and called for more “checks and balances” on the power of ministerial intervention, limited to “the extraordinary circumstance of a potential threat to national security”.
Other than Tehan’s intervention in 2020 “for national security concerns”, the report said, the projects blocked by Nelson (2005, 2006), Birmingham (2017, 2018) and acting minister Robert (2021) were “rejected reportedly on the grounds of poor value for money”.
The bill implements six of the 10 recommendations made by the review in August.
Most significantly, it includes the establishment of an independent ARC board that would be responsible for issuing approvals within the national competition grants program, previously under the jurisdiction of the education minister.
The board would be appointed by the minister, requiring relevant qualifications in one or more fields of research and at least one First Nations person and regional representative.
It would be responsible for appointing the ARC’s chief executive and approving the appointment of members to board committees.
Any veto by the minister to reject or terminate funding based on national security concerns would require the notification of parliament.
Clare said he had promised to end the days of ministers using the ARC as a “political plaything”, adding that at “least four” of his predecessors had interfered during the former government to “upend the independent peer review process”.
As part of the bill, the minister would be responsible for approving the funding guidelines, subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and would retain the power to approve “nationally significant investments” including projects driving research, infrastructure, training and collaboration.
This financial year, the ARC issued $895m in research grants, supporting about 5,900 new and ongoing grants.
The Universities Australia chief executive, Catriona Jackson, said the reforms marked “game-changing” steps to creating a better environment for researchers.
“We thank minister Clare for listening and accepting these measures that put strong governance, peer review and genuine transparency back at the core of the ARC,” she said.
“We look forward to the ARC board strengthening the integrity of decision-making processes and fully support changes that limit interference and delay in the grants process.
“These are game-changing steps to create a stronger, more stable environment for researchers to continue preparing Australia for the opportunities and challenges ahead.”
The reforms follow an extensive backlash from the education sector over the historical veto of research, a practice labelled “McCarthyism” by former Labor senator and minister for research Kim Carr.
In December 2021, the former Coalition was accused of using the cover of Christmas to politicise research funding, after then-acting education minister Robert blocked grants for six recommended projects including research relating to climate activism and China.
Robert argued the projects he rejected “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest” – but the decision, announced on Christmas Eve, drew sharp criticism from education figures.
