University fury over minister’s secret veto on research grants

Outrage erupted when it was revealed a federal minister quietly ­vetoed 11 humanities research grants without providing reasons.

Academy of ­the Humanities president Joy Damousi.

Outrage erupted across academia yesterday when it was revealed a federal minister had quietly ­vetoed 11 humanities research grants without providing any reasons and without publicly declaring the decision at the time.

Worth more than $4 million, the grant applications had been through a rigorous peer-review process and recommended by the Australian Research Council.

The then federal education minister, Simon Birmingham, did not turn down any science or technology grants, and yesterday he tweeted: “I’m pretty sure most Australian taxpayers preferred their funding to be used for research other than spending $223,000 on projects like ‘Post orientalist arts of the Strait of ­Gibraltar’.”

Other applications, from scholars at a range of Australia’s largest and most respected universities, included “Rioting and the literary archive”, “A history of men’s dress 1870-1970”, “Music heritage and cultural justice in the post-industrial city”, “Legal secularism in Australia”, “Prints, metals and materials in global exchange”, “Soviet cinema in Hollywood before the Black List 1917-1950”, and “The music of ­nature and the ­nature of music”.

“Unless Senator Birmingham had really good, solid, academic, intellectual reasons (for the veto), it really does amount to political intervention,” said the president of the Academy of ­the Humanities, professor Joy Damousi.

“These are esteemed scholars who have track records and have demonstrated to their peers that they are of the highest standard. It’s a very competitive process. To overrule that through some whim really raises grave concerns about how Australia’s research is being assessed and funded.” Labor senator Kim Carr, who uncovered the action in ­Senate estimates hearings, said it was the first time grants had been vetoed by a minister since Liberal Brendan Nelson turned down applications in 2004-05.

Senator Carr said Senator Birmingham’s decision was likely a reflection of a “general swing to the Right” in government ranks and an attempt to appease the hard Right of the party when he turned down the grants earlier this year and last year. The grants, Senator Carr added, concerned arts, history and literature — fundamental to civilised society. “One of the projects is actually a study of the closure of the General Motors plant in Elizabeth, looking at how an industrial suburb deals with industrial closure and the role of music in that.”

The chair of Universities Australia, Monash University vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner, said the grants were “hard fought for, hard won and go only to the best applications and the best people”. She said Senator Birmingham had decided, with no explanation, to secretly reject the applications. She compared it with recent debate on freedom of speech on campuses, and the push for a university to agree to a course funded by the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.

“The notion that you are somehow standing up for freedom of speech and Western civilisation, and suppressing research in the humanities without explanation and on no basis that anybody can see, is something to be condemned and not to be repeated,” she said.

The National Tertiary Education Union, the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, the Innovative Research Universities group, the Australasian ­Association of Philosophy and the Australian Academy of Science all expressed dismay at the veto.