Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Science and education have been the big losers under the last Abbott budget. Eight hundred jobs went from the CSIRO and round 17 of the CRC funding disappeared altogether. Yet, curiously, $4 million has been found to fund the ironically named Australian Consensus Centre, a think tank which has at its heart a commitment to cherry-pick the scientific evidence to argue against urgent action on climate change. The education minister said that the decision to fund this new centre at UWA followed a proposal put forward by the university and Dr Bjorn Lomborg, but the vice-chancellor at UWA said that the proposed project was not initiated by them but arose out of discussions between Dr Lomborg and the government. It seems that the offer came directly from the Prime Minister's office and it came to UWA only after the Australian Catholic University rejected it. Extraordinarily, this special research initiative, unlike any other such initiative, did not go through the Australian Research Council or any peer review. UWA has now refused to accept the funds after academic students and donors protested the corrupt process. This protest is not about limiting academic freedom; it is saying that the PM should not have the right without an independent—(Time expired)