Bid to end wacky uni research

Jack Houghton -- Daily Telegraph -- 29 October 2018

Millions of tax dollars allocated for "wacky" research projects has prompted a call for greater government oversight in the grants process.Former education minister Simon Birmingham was forced to step in and ban 11 projects from being funded to the tune of $4.2 million dollars last year.Among the grants almost handed out, according to Australian Research Council briefings obtained by The Daily Telegraph, was $336,000 for University of NSW academics to study links between "socialist revolution" and cinema.Mr Birmingham (above) also blocked $162,000 for a UNSW study into China and gender norms and $1 million from a study into Native American languages. He also canned a "Greening Media Sport" study that asked for government funds to spruik environmental issues at major sporting events Senator James Paterson said it was a worry the projects were ever backed. "This is why government needs to have oversight over (the grants) ...we cannot have academics approving grants for other academics," he said.This article was originally published in Sydney's Daily Telegraph.