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

As I said earlier in my second reading contribution, this bill gives the minister power to specify designated research programs in regulations, under which funding for individual research projects is decided solely by the minister and not by the ARC board. This risks the minister taking sole decision-making power over a wide range of funding decisions on individual grants. These concerns have been raised with me by many in the research community, and that's why the Greens did move an amendment that an act of parliament should be required for the minister to take the significant steps of obtaining sole decision-making power over research funding. Nevertheless, that amendment did not get up. This amendment is a minor improvement on the bill because it provides slightly more clarity to the meaning of designated research programs, and the Greens will not stand in the way of this amendment.

Question agreed to.