Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens support this motion. There should be no political interference in research grants, full stop. The Liberals need to back off on the so-called national interest test, which is just a smoke-screen for inserting political priorities into the independent research approval process. What's truly in the national interest is for academics to continue the centuries-old tried and tested process of peer review. I do encourage Labor to go one step further and support my bill to remove all ministerial veto from research grants, to listen to universities and the academic community and to send a clear signal to academics and experts that they can be trusted to make research decisions, no matter who the government is.