The AHA recently made a submission to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Australian Research Council Amendment (Ensuring Research Independence) Bill 2018. The submission supported the proposed amendment to remove the Minister’s veto over ARC grants. We also objected in the strongest terms to political interference in the award of ARC grants. The three known examples of such rejection of applications approved by the ARC’s rigorous processes of peer review have undermined confidence in Australia’s research system, damaged academic careers, and called into question this country’s commitment to open inquiry in the eyes of the international academic community. See the AHA’s full submission here.