#senateestimates — Public Fediverse posts

Jillian Segal refuses to release conflict of interest docs claiming they’re “private”.
Segal, stumbling, then claims her conflicts are actually “public”.
David Shoebridge: “if it’s public, why do you object to them being published?”
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DY4Bf_iIIlv/
#AusPol #SenateEstimates #AntisemitismEnvoy

At the Senate's Estimates today, #Bishop waxed lyrical about the funds she has personally brought into ANU from Philanthropists in WA and elsewhere (Over $60M). She also mentioned that in 2019 ANU's financial position was 'vastly' better (ie. before she took it over), and then COVID happen, nasty Covid made everything dearer and expenditure went up apparently. That was the entire focus in her defence. Verbal garbage a plenty avoiding any explanations for ANU's alledged financial woes or financial mismanagement.

I blame the #Senators for focussing on #Bishop rather than ANU's financial management and the doctered financial reports which show something like $142M deficit whereas the auditors had the university with a $90M surplus. Instead they wasted time on student numbers, student scholarships and the Kambri programme giving Bishop the lecturn she gladly used. Funny though, she now accepts credit for turning the ANU financial position around -- just like that in a few months, magically.

It's also convenient that the interim #Vice Prof Brown was the one who made changes to RenewANU implementations in January this year and is implementing those changes now.

Senators Shoebridge, Pocock and Faruqui were more on point (on leadership and finance) and made a few uncomfortable - Covid came up again then. But it was confirmed that ANU's dire financial position stems from an accounting perspective (different buckets of money)

Giving Bishop an opportunity to glaze the cherry and ignore accounting practices was irresponsible. And I am now convinced that the Chancellor is blind to her conduct and reponsibility for the current state of affairs on campus.

Throughout, Bishop appears in total denial else she's completely clueless.

#ANU #RenewANU #SenateEstimates

If you haven't watched the Senate Estimate hearing with ANU Chancellors answering questions from Senators.

Link to Vid:

https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Read_Listen/ParlView/video/3951731

The ARC is up at #SenateEstimates this Friday. As per tradition, they come in last on the schedule ▶️ https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ee

I'm sure there won't be many questions about ANU & TEQSA, so there'll definitely be time for lengthly discussion about the ARC 🫠

As usual in ARC #SenateEstimates, Coalition Sen. Henderson attacked individual researchers & projects 🚮

She went on about the Oz article (confected for Estimates fodder) on ARC projects “wasting taxpayer money”.

But … one was approved by the Coalition 🤭
https://youtu.be/0JZUOQSLJXc

Sen. Mehreen Faruqi asked ARC, again, in #SenateEstimates if they can just email outcomes with a short publicity embargo.

ARC tries to sell their tweet-a-day-before as a "system we've developed" that’s "gone past [the embargo] approach".

The spin, man😒
https://youtu.be/cR6JyqfVY28

"I think it’s a real mess to put researchers in that position"

Sen. Mehreen Faruqi asks in #SenateEstimates why ARC ask applicants to assess other applications to the same scheme.

Seems like an obvious conflict of interest!?

ARC say they're reviewing their peer review system!

https://youtu.be/VOGd1jCHDRY

ARC were asked by Sen. Mehreen Faruqi in #SenateEstimates about the rapid decline in the number of Discovery Projects.

They didn’t answer the question at all. Instead they wanted to "check the data". How uninformed about their own schemes can the ARC be??
https://youtu.be/LAPZzczJY98

The acting ARC CEO is very confused about how webpages work.

Greens Sen. Mehreen Faruqi asked for an explanation in #SenateEstimates about ARC's accidental early publication of #DECRA outcomes.

Some magical thinking here🤯

"We looked into this"🤣🤌
https://youtu.be/rvf2t0TAOCo

Help me out here. Are misinformation & disinformation really fundamental to Judaism? I thought that was just an 🇮🇱 Zionist thing.

Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory tells Senate Estimates that the AJA is against legislating to help stamp out misinformation and disinformation because he says it will mean that “Jewish practises which are thousands of years old could come under breach of the law”🤔

AJA’s President David Adler raised concerns and insisted that new misinformation laws will affect Jewish people “directly” because of their faith.

Bear in mind that there are religious exemptions in the Bill.

#AusPol
#Judaism
#disinformation
#misinformation
#SenateEstimates
#AustralianJewishAssociation

ARC is up at #SenateEstimates tonight (Thursday), bringing up the rear of the program yet again, at ~9:30pm (AEDT) ▶️ https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ee

I'll try to watch it and report back.

ARC #SenateEstimates

Yesterday the ARC answered questions on the following:
🔹Delay to DECRAs
🔹Discovery Projects 2-stage process

Short 🧵 reporting the basics👇

ARC appears before #SenateEstimates this Thursday, once again securing the least convenient time on the agenda, ~9:00pm (AEST) ▶️ https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ee

ARC basically only answered "we'll take that on notice" last time. Hope they find some actual answers this time.

ARC in #SenateEstimates now: https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Read_Listen

The ARC appears before #SenateEstimates this Thursday night, once again the last on the agenda at about 10:30pm (AEDT) ▶️ https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ee

I'll try to watch it and report back.
(I might be otherwise occupied and may have to watch the recording afterwards)

In October’s #SenateEstimates, Senator @mehreenfaruqi asked ARC about anonymisation ⤵️

ARC responded: The scheme Objectives (which we make up) state that we fund excellent teams so … proposals can’t be anonymised.

A triumph of policy over evidence.
📽️ https://youtu.be/UyXkutMZuSc?si=pHX0o3PawXsk7Gfb&t=272

One way to reduce bias is to anonymise proposals, & only let College members see team details.

But ARC baulk at this. Their #SenateEstimates defence was something like “we can’t because … of the Scheme Aims" … which they wrote🙄
https://aus.social/@ARC_Tracker/111305446114172863

Here's the official announcement of the 2-stage process for #DiscoveryProjects #DP25 ▶️ https://www.arc.gov.au/news-publications/media/feature-articles/discovery-projects-scheme-two-stage-application-process

(On Thursday night, at #SenateEstimates, the ARC said they weren't in a position to say whether this would run for DP25. But now we have a video announcing it on Monday. Riiighhht.)

ARC #SenateEstimates: Assessor scores

Sen. Faruqi: Scores for successful proposals, not just unsuccessful?

ARC: “IT issues” they previously cited are “don’t appear to be significant” after all, so maybe next year.
https://youtu.be/EWdO_YLlSnQ

ARC #SenateEstimates: Industry Fellowships

Sen. Faruqi: Did your review of this scheme show need to include rejoinder stage?

ARC: Not many people raised it, so no. We aren’t changing the scheme for next round.

ARC #SenateEstimates: Communication of outcomes

Sen Faruqi: Will you email outcomes to applicants?

ARC: No, but there’ll be improvements next year in how we interact with & inform researchers.

Sen Faruqi: What about a 2-day publicity embargo?

ARC: 🤔⏳
https://youtu.be/53pw8smLQQs

ARC #SenateEstimates: 2-stage process for #DiscoveryProjects

Senator Mehreen Faruqi: Will this run for #DP25?

ARC: Announcement soon (“haven’t finalised”, “very close”) but no delay to 28th Nov opening date.
https://youtu.be/UyXkutMZuSc

“What is an escape room experience? And who won the raffle?”

Coalition’s questions at ARC #SenateEstimates were unserious & incurious.

Senator Henderson is “concerned” – note facial expression (unforced).

Deep insight into things that matter.
https://youtu.be/2xi4smadZGU

ARC #SenateEstimates was last night.

I’ll post separate mini-threads about different issues.

But, as usual, the only serious questions were asked by Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi – thanks for representing researchers!

ARC appears before #SenateEstimates this Thursday, at the family-friendly time of 10:30pm AEDT (though times often change on the day): ▶️https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ee

I'll try my best to watch & report on Friday.

I probably should have seen a consultant on this one

#auspol #SenateEstimates #Consultancy

@NewtonMark @Heterokromia That's why we need to litigate the fear of God into them, Mark. And embarrass them at #SenateEstimates, in #qt and in the media.
They may be devoid of humanity and empathy, but they are sensitive to financial and reputational consequences.
We need to exploit that.
#AusPol

Sen. @[email protected] asked ARC about this in #SenateEstimates a couple of weeks ago👇

Pretty simple bottom line here: We shouldn't be watching tweets & swarming to a "public noticeboard" (RMS) for outcomes!
https://twitter.com/ARC_Tracker/status/1666954240571625475

This change is in line with answers ARC gave to questions in #SenateEstimates a couple of weeks ago👇
https://twitter.com/ARC_Tracker/status/1666954234699608064

ARC #SenateEstimates was last Friday night.

Topics
🔹#IndustryFellowships review needed
🔹Assessor scores for all schemes!
🔹Low-rank triage?
🔹3 months to approve grants?
🔹Outcomes emailed to applicants?
🔹ARC advice to #RaiseTheStipend?
🔹The unserious Opposition

Summary🧵👇

ARC is due to appear in #SenateEstimates tonight, scheduled for 7:45pm (AEST) but maybe a bit earlier.

I'll be trying to watch here: https://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Read_Listen