Australian authorities are yet to apply checks and balances that were introduced to prevent university research from subverting the national interest, it has been revealed.

Australia¡¯s parliament has heard that no university has been found to have breached the Defence Trade Controls Act, an eight-year-old law designed to ensure that sensitive technology did not fall into the wrong hands.

Meanwhile, a senate committee has been told that no applications for Australian Research Council (ARC) funding have been rejected for failing the ¡°national interest test¡± introduced in 2018 by education minister Dan Tehan.

The revelations suggest that neither of the contradictory criticisms sometimes levelled at Australian university research ¨C either that it is too abstract to have any practical application, or that it holds the key to technological secrets?that could imperil the country ¨C is well grounded.

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The government¡¯s opponents say restrictions to collaborative research and grant administration are part of a political campaign to ¡°diminish the regard for academic inquiry¡±, rather than regulatory solutions to tangible problems.

They cite the national interest test ¨C saying it was completely unnecessary because research grant criteria already contained national interest provisions ¨C and a campaign to further restrict collaborative research with foreign partners, particularly in China.

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Opposition MPs say suggestions that Australian researchers have become ¡°cat¡¯s paws of a foreign power¡± are reinforced by newspaper headlines such as ¡°Rooting out campus spies¡±, ¡°Universities forced to take action over China ties¡± and ¡°China¡¯s tech rise poses security and human rights dilemma for Australian universities¡±.

And they say the government¡¯s practice of arranging for its backbenchers to announce grants at politically opportune times,?sometimes months after the grants have been approved, is further evidence of interference.

Adding to the opposition¡¯s grievances, it has emerged that a ¡°new¡± A$12 million (?6.2 million) research programme focusing on Australian subject matter will be funded by diverting existing money in the ARC¡¯s Linkage scheme.

Mr Tehan, who announced the ¡°special research initiative¡± in January, said it would help to correct an imbalance where?only 3 per cent of allocations under the primary competitive grant scheme went to research into Australian culture, society or history.

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Labor senator Kim Carr said the new initiative was symptomatic of a ¡°growing politicisation¡­of ARC grants¡± where a minister ¡°seems to know better than peer-reviewed processes¡±.

Mr Carr highlighted former education minister Simon Birmingham¡¯s 2017 refusal to approve funding for 11 humanities research projects that had been endorsed by the ARC ¨C a decision that led to Mr Tehan¡¯s introduction of the national interest test.

¡°The government has time and again disrespected researchers and, frankly, made a mockery of the ARC¡¯s independence,¡± Mr Carr said.

Labor senator Tim Ayres called on Mr Birmingham to explain why he had intervened in the grants process. Mr Birmingham said the grants ¡°would have been inconsistent with the expectations of the broader community¡±.

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¡°Had I approved them I would have to defend that use of taxpayers¡¯ money,¡± he told the senate.

He said he had not made his vetoes public at the time because ¡°Senator Carr or others probably would have accused me of political grandstanding¡±.

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¡°I was seeking to make sure that in no way were we being seen to attack any part of the research community or undermine the credibility of the research grants process,¡± Mr Birmingham said.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com