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Every one of Iran’s drones that rains down on countries across the Middle East and Mediterranean ought to be branded with a simple message: brought to you by Australian universities.
As I wrote yesterday, Australia’s universities have used Australian taxpayers’ money to help our enemies develop the very weapons being used against our allies. Universities such as the UNSW have used public money on quisling collaborations with some of the worst despots in the world, including the very regime that has sponsored years of anti-Semitic terror in Australia.
It gets worse.
Taxpayers have funded Australian academics to collaborate with scientists from the despot nations of Iran, China, Russia and even North Korea on at least 1500 joint research projects over the past decade […]
Australian Research Council data shows it has funded 1468 research collaborations – most relating to hi-tech engineering and computing research – with China since 2014. Nearly 10 per cent of all ARC-funded research projects over the past decade involved China, making it Australia’s fourth-ranking research partner behind the US, UK and Germany.
The ARC also funded 76 research collaborations with the Russian Federation – with three-quarters of them involving science, engineering or mathematics.
I’ve long been advocating bulldozing the entire university sector and starting again. It’s starting to look like even that’s not enough. Should academics who collaborate with our enemies – especially on military application – face serious consequences?
The Australian National University – which is affiliated with Australia’s defence and spy agencies – took part in 14 academic collaborations with Russia, while the University of Melbourne and University of NSW each conducted 13 joint projects.
The ARC’s data portal reveals 15 collaborations between Australian universities and Iran between 2014 and 2023, when they were banned by the Albanese government. It indicates Monash University collaborated with Iranian researchers on four projects, while the ANU worked on three […]
The ARC data portal indicates the University of NSW collaborated with North Korean researchers on one economics-related project in 2014.
That’s just what was funded by the ARC.
Apart from the ARC funding, individual universities had independently sponsored drone-related research with Iran prior to the government’s ban.
Separate collaborations with the sanctioned Sharif University of Technology in Iran involved researchers with ties to the University of Sydney, University of NSW and Adelaide University.
This stuff is so alarming that even the jelly backed Albanese government was forced to take action.
[Foreign Minister Penny Wong] said on Wednesday she had told universities early in 2023 to cease all collaborations with Iran. “When we came to government (in 2022) there were an alarming number of foreign arrangements in effect between universities and Iran, entered into under the Liberal and National government,’’ her spokeswoman said.
She said the Albanese government was “taking action to strengthen, clarify and streamline the Foreign Arrangements Scheme’’, which allows the foreign minister to terminate any university agreement that is inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy.
But why are academics and administrators escaping any form of real consequences?
Opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser said evidence of research with Iran was a matter of enormous concern. “Iran is one of the largest exporters of terrorism in the world, including to Australia, and has used its drone system to cause terror and strike at civilians across the region,’’ Mr Leeser said […]
Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson declared it “shocking that Australian universities still appear not to have learned the lessons of the past decade about the risks of dual use research’’.
“We should never co-operate with universities in authoritarian countries on research which has potential military applications,’’ Senator Paterson said. “Naivete is no longer a defence, particularly in research areas with such strategic significance like drones. If universities won’t get with the program, the Albanese government must use the numerous lever available to them to force their hand, including the powers in the Foreign Relations Act.’’
How about jail time?
