Bills Digest No. 117,
2017–18
Dr Emily Hanna
Science, Technology, Environment and Resources Section
15 June 2018
Date introduced: 10
May 2018
House: House of
Representatives
Portfolio: Education
and Training
Commencement: The
whole Bill commences the day after Royal Assent.
Links: The links to the Bill,
its Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech can be found on the
Bill’s home page, or through the Australian
Parliament website.
When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent,
they become Acts, which can be found at the Federal Register of Legislation
website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as
at June 2018.
Contents
Purpose of the Bill
Background
Committee consideration
Policy position of non-government
parties/independents
Position of major interest groups
Financial implications
Statement of Compatibility with Human
Rights
Key issues and provisions
Purpose of
the Bill
The purpose of the Australian Research Council Amendment
Bill 2018 (the Bill) is to amend the Australian Research
Council Act 2001 (the Act) to apply indexation to the appropriation
amounts for approved research programs for the three financial years from 1
July 2017 to 1 July 2019 and insert funding caps for two new financial years
(starting on 1 July 2020 and 1 July 2021).
Background
The Australian Research Council (ARC) is an independent
Commonwealth body which was established in 2001 through the Act.[1]
As the main Commonwealth research support body, it aims:
... to grow knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the
Australian community through funding the highest quality research, assessing
the quality, engagement and impact of research and providing advice on research
matters.[2]
The ARC is the Government’s main source of advice on investment
in Australian research as well as providing the Government with advice on general
research issues. The ARC also provides evaluation of research through Excellence
in Research for Australia (ERA).[3]
ERA ‘identifies and promotes excellence across the full spectrum of research
activity in Australia’s higher education institutions’, including through
comparison with international benchmarks.[4]
The ARC administers funding for both primary and applied
research in all areas through the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP; however,
the majority of medical research funding is administered through the National
Health and Medical Research Council). There are currently two programs in the
NCGP: the Discovery and Linkage Programs. The Discovery Program focuses on research
by individual researchers and small teams of researchers while the Linkage
Program encourages research ‘links’ between higher education institution researchers
and industry, business and other research partners.[5]
The grants are awarded competitively through a peer assessment process.[6]
The Act provides the financial assistance required for the
ARC to administer the NCGP. It does this by providing annual funding caps for
the approved research.[7]
The Explanatory Memorandum states that applying indexation to appropriation
amounts and inserting funding for additional years are ‘essential as the ARC
Act is the legislative basis that supports the financial operations of the ARC
research programs through special appropriation mechanisms which must occur
each financial year’.[8]
The Bill therefore supports the continued funding of ‘high-quality research
needed to grow knowledge and innovation for the benefit of the Australian
community’.[9]
Committee
consideration
Senate
Standing Committee for Selection of Bills
At the time of writing, the Senate Selection of Bills
Committee had deferred its consideration of the Bill to the next Committee
meeting.[10]
Senate
Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills
At the time of writing, the Senate Standing Committee for the
Scrutiny of Bills had not reported on the Bill.[11]
Policy
position of non-government parties/independents
At the time of writing, non-government parties and
independents do not appear to have commented on the Bill.
Position of
major interest groups
The indexation of the funding for the ARC Discovery and
Linkage Programs has been welcomed by science bodies. The Australian Academy of
Science stated it was ‘[a] welcome return to indexation of ARC Discovery and
Linkage schemes after several years of flat funding’.[12]
Kylie Walker, Science & Technology Australia CEO, also welcomed the ‘return
to keeping pace with CPI...for the Australian Research Council’.[13]
Financial
implications
The Bill results in an additional appropriation of
approximately $1.6 billion over five years from 1 July 2017.[14]
The additional appropriation does not affect the substance of the Act nor give
extra money to a Government department; it only adds to the special
appropriation administered by the ARC for the purpose of funding research. The proposed
changes in funding are in Table 1.
Table 1: proposed changes in appropriation caps
Financial year (starting date) |
Current Appropriation Cap ($)[15] |
Proposed Appropriation Cap ($)[16] |
1 July 2017 |
746,852,000 |
758,055,000 |
1 July 2018 |
736,179,000 |
759,925,000 |
1 July 2019 |
747,812,000 |
771,932,000 |
1 July 2020 |
- |
771,932,000 |
1 July 2021 |
- |
771,932,000 |
Sources: Australian Research
Council Act 2001, section 49; Australian
Research Council Amendment Bill 2018, item 2.
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed the
Bill’s compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared
in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The Government
considers that the Bill is compatible.[17]
Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights
At the time of writing, the Parliamentary Joint Committee
on Human Rights had not yet considered the Bill.[18]
Key issues
and provisions
Schedule 1 contains two items. Part 7 of the Act
covers research funding, with Division 1 of Part 7 outlining financial
assistance for approved research programs. Section 48 of the Act then contains
the years to which Division 1 applies. Item 1 inserts two proposed
paragraphs at the end of subsection 48(2) of the Act. Proposed paragraph
48(2)(q) adds the financial year starting 1 July 2020 while proposed
paragraph 48(2)(r) adds the financial year starting 1 July 2021. This means
that Division 1 of Part 7 of the Act will apply to the additional financial
years.
Item 2 of the Bill relates to section 49 of the
Act, which specifies annual caps on the total approved amounts of research
funding. Item 2 repeals paragraphs 49(r), (s) and (t), which contain
funding caps for the financial years beginning 1 July 2017, 1 July 2018 and 1
July 2019, respectively. It substitutes these with proposed paragraphs 49(r)–(v),
which provide new funding caps for the five financial years starting 1 July
2017 through to 1 July 2021, respectively. The funding cap amounts are detailed
above in the ‘Financial implications’ section. In the second reading speech for
the Bill, the Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills, Karen
Andrews, stated that the increase to funding caps in the Bill for the three
financial years from 1 July 2017 to 1 July 2019 are ‘in line with
inflation’.[19]
[1]. Australian Research
Council Act 2001, section 5.
[2]. ARC,
‘Welcome
to the Australian Research Council website’, ARC website, last modified 23
October 2017.
[3]. Ibid.
[4]. ARC, ‘Excellence in
Research for Australia’, ARC website, last modified 18 April 2018.
[5]. ARC,
‘Welcome
to the Australian Research Council website’, op. cit.
[6]. ARC,
‘Peer review’, ARC website,
last modified 3 February 2017.
[7]. Australian Research
Council Act 2001, section 49.
[8]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2018, p. 2.
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. Senate
Standing Committee for Selection of Bills, Report,
5, 2018, The Senate, Canberra, 10 May 2018, p. 4.
[11]. Senate
Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills, Scrutiny
digest, 5, 2018, The Senate, 9 May 2018.
[12]. Australian
Academy of Science, Good
outcomes for science in Budget 2018, media release, 8 May 2018.
[13]. Science
& Technology Australia, STEM
a standout winner in this year’s budget, media release, 8 May 2018.
[14]. Explanatory
Memorandum, Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2018, p. 3.
[15]. Australian Research
Council Act 2001, section 49.
[16]. Australian
Research Council Amendment Bill 2018, item 2.
[17]. The
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights can be found at page 4 of the Explanatory
Memorandum to the Bill.
[18]. Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights, Human rights
scrutiny report, 4, 8 May 2018.
[19]. K
Andrews, ‘Second
reading speech: Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2018’, House of
Representatives, Debates, (proof), 10 May 2018, p. 9.
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