The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ) this week condemned the actions of the former Minister of Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, who in 2017 reversed several research funding decisions made by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Many of the scholarly projects arbitrarily refused funding were in art history, visual culture, and related fields; all were in the humanities.
This shameful interference in the rigorous peer-review process of Australia’s most significant humanities funding body shows that the current government has no respect for the important work that our members and subscribers do, whether as humanities researchers, as grant applicants, or as grant assessors and expert panel members.
A chorus of voices from individual researchers, university vice-chancellors, and scholarly associations have expressed similar views. As Universities Australia has argued in recent days, this virtually unprecedented act “erodes global confidence in Australia’s research program” and “undermines academic freedom, by opening the door to any Minister deciding they don’t like a research topic – irrespective of its merits.”
This situation cannot be allowed to endure. Individual careers and the future viability of the disciplines we work in and deeply care about are now in jeopardy.
In response, the AAANZ wrote to the current Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, to insist on the complete transparency of funding decisions and to demand that the rejected grant proposals have their funding restored. I would encourage everyone to do the same by filling out the form here.
The AAANZ also wrote to Adam Bandt, the local Member of Parliament for the electorate where the Association is currently based, for assistance in prosecuting this agenda, and he subsequently appeared on Sky News this week to defend the principle that research funding decisions be free from political interference. I would urge all members and subscribers to write to their own local members about this issue.
Looking ahead, the Association is planning a public event to address this severe downgrading of Australia’s international reputation for humanities research. Updates will be posted on the AAANZ website and through member and subscriber emails.
Anthony White