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

This amendment makes the case that ARC funding agreements require researchers involved to declare any actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest to the ARC. I do note that the ARC's current policy on conflicts of interest and existing grant application processes already appear to require researchers to declare conflicts of interest. However, I think this amendment does provide clarity and the Greens will not stand in the way of it.

Question agreed to.

by leave—I move the Australian Greens amendments (1) to (9) on sheet 2394 together:

(1) Schedule 3, item 6, page 23 (line 1), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(2) Schedule 3, item 6, page 23 (lines 3 and 4), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(3) Schedule 3, item 6, page 24 (line 17), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(4) Schedule 3, item 6, page 24 (lines 20 and 21), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(5) Schedule 3, item 6, page 29 (lines 27 and 28), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(6) Schedule 3, item 6, page 29 (lines 31 and 32), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(7) Schedule 3, item 6, page 32 (lines 23 and 24), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(8) Schedule 3, item 6, page 32 (line 26), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

(9) Schedule 3, item 6, page 33 (line 26), omit ", defence or international relations", substitute "or defence".

While this bill is a really big step forward in terms of removing the minister's veto power, I think there are some areas in this bill which still leave that power within the minister's jurisdiction. This amendment removes the minister's power to not approve, or to terminate, ARC research funding for reasons relevant to international relations of Australia. The ARC review recommended retaining a ministerial veto only for reasons of national security, but this bill broadens those reasons by adding international relations as a reason for a veto as well. Researchers, including the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and five Australian academies, have raised concerns that this risks being interpreted broadly and could lead to unintended consequences.

The breadth of the international relations veto power is concerning because, in determining whether to veto research funding for international relations reasons, the bill explicitly notes that the minister may regard any matter they consider appropriate. This is a pretty wide discretion that does present a real risk. A huge amount of international collaboration occurs across the research sector. An explicit object of the ARC as proposed by this bill is to support collaborative research with international partners, so clearly there is a risk that the international relations veto could be relevant to many research projects and does present a risk of interference that this bill is trying to remove more broadly. My amendment would remove this risk.