Chris Lynch
Chris Lynch is a journalist, videographer and content producer, broadcasting from his independent news and production company in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The New Zealand government’s decision to ‘reimagine’ social science and humanities funding from the Marsden Fund and focus on science-based research has triggered outrage from those who’ve benefited from years of unchecked taxpayer generosity.
I use the word reimagining with the same level of sincerity and frivolity that woke academics apply to it – loosely and dripping with condescension.
Let’s get real, these cuts were a long time coming.
For years, the Marsden Fund has squandered taxpayer dollars on ideological nonsense, dressed up as research, that offers no real value to the public.
What was meant to advance science and technology turned into a piggy bank for academic pet theories that have little relevance to real-world issues.
Here’s a snapshot of where your taxpayer dollars have been going:
$360,000 to examine Pacific gamer girl experiences – because “gaming culture remains associated with masculinity, heterosexuality, and whiteness”.
$757,000 How do we transition to a decolonised nation that respects and upholds collective indigenous rights.
• $360,000 to “decolonise” gender education in schools.
• $360,000 to examine Māori sexuality through food, song, and storytelling.
• $861,000 to explore “border imperialism” in ocean governance.
• $859,000 to investigate “remembering and forgetting difficult histories” in New Zealand.
Dr Joanna Kidman, who along with four others was handed $859,000 for a project titled He Taonga te Wareware?: Remembering and Forgetting Difficult Histories in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
When I questioned the Royal Society in 2022 about why nearly a million dollars was awarded, particularly given her record of online bullying as racism, their response was evasive at best.
This lack of transparency highlights exactly why the fund needed a reset. The Royal Society sent me on a circular journey, which ended back at them.
Unsurprisingly, the backlash has been self-serving. Professor Nicola Gaston called the cuts “absolutely disgusting”, as reported by RNZ.
What RNZ didn’t mention was that Gaston is co-director of the MacDiarmid Institute, funded by Marsden.
Bursting with self-importance, she declared humanities work as “incredibly important”, but it’s hard not to roll your eyes when her paycheck depends on milking the system she desperately defends.
Even the MacDiarmid Institute’s collaboration with the far-left Spinoff should make taxpayers pause.
The acting president of the CTU chimed in, as well, claiming humanities research is essential for fostering “empathy, understanding, and social cohesion”. Let’s be honest – if this funding was fostering empathy by handing cash to someone like Joanna Kidman, an online bully, it’s no surprise the humanities sector has lost credibility.
New Zealand’s former Chief Science Advisor joined the pile-on. Richard Dawkins once criticised her for focusing on “the latest fashionable opinion of Generation TikTok” rather than actual science.
The truth is, the Marsden Fund became a slush fund for academics to indulge their ideological whims, with no accountability.
Minister Judith Collins’ decision to refocus the fund on science is a correction New Zealand needed.
By prioritising research that delivers economic, environmental, and health benefits, the government is finally putting taxpayer dollars to work where they matter most.
The Marsden Fund reset is a win for science, a win for accountability, and a win for New Zealand’s future.
The days of fruit-loop research is over.
This article was originally published by Chris Lynch Media.
