Lidia Thorpe

by leave—I move the amendment on sheet 2451, standing in my name:

(1) Schedule 2, item 10, page 9 (line 15), at the end of subsection 12(4), add:

; and (e) ensure that the membership of the Board reflects a diversity of discipline areas to the extent that is reasonably practicable.

This amendment is very simple. It gives full effect to recommendation 6 of the review, which states that the board must comprise members with:

… a combination of skills, experience, and perspectives relevant to the functions of the ARC across the spectrum of ARC disciplines, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership, research administration and evaluation, and university industry partners.

Numerous submissions and stakeholders called for measures to ensure the board is comprised of individuals from a range of academic disciplines. While I endorse the existing provisions requiring a First Nations member and geographical diversity, the diversity of the general community remains open to interpretation and does not guarantee that the range of academic disciplines are represented on the board.

Anthony Chisholm

The government will not be supporting this amendment. The processes for appointment of the board are drawn from the independent review and contain protections around diversity. The government has agreed to an amendment from the Greens which further enhanced this protection.

Mehreen Faruqi

The Greens, as I said earlier, have long pushed for representative and diverse governance structures in universities and research, so we will be supporting Senator Thorpe's amendment.

David Fawcett

The question is that Senator Thorpe's amendment (1) on sheet 2451 be agreed to.

Summary

Date and time: 2:42 PM on 2024-03-18
Senator Pocock's vote: Aye
Total number of "aye" votes: 16
Total number of "no" votes: 23
Total number of abstentions: 37
Related bill: Australian Research Council Amendment (Review Response) Bill 2023

Adapted from information made available by theyvoteforyou.org.au