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

by leave—I move Greens' amendments (1) and (2) on sheet 2396:

(1) Schedule 3, item 6, page 35 (line 16), at the end of subsection 59(3), add ", but section 42 (disallowance) of the Legislation Act 2003 does not apply to the rules".

(2) Schedule 3, item 6, page 35 (line 31), at the end of subsection 60(4), add ", but section 42 (disallowance) of the Legislation Act 2003 does not apply to the variation".

The current situation for ARC funding rules, also known as grant guidelines, is that they are tabled in parliament but are not disallowable. The Parliamentary Library informs me this has been the situation since at least 2006 and perhaps even earlier. The government's bill seeks to change that to make funding rules disallowable. Many researchers and universities have raised significant concerns with me that this introduces a new form of political interference which has not been seen in the past and risks significant delays to the commencement of entire research teams.

The ARC review which this government is implementing with this legislation did not make any recommendations to make funding rules disallowable. In fact, the final report did not even mention the word 'disallowable' once. My amendment would retain the current situation by making funding rules should be tabled in parliament, allowing for public scrutiny, while avoiding delays of the disallowance processes for researchers waiting for their grant applications.