I’m not one to panic, but what the actual *clown car horn* is going on??
Your Back Page scribbler lost interest in US politics on Wednesday 6 November last year when it became obvious that a certain tangerine fool was going to romp into the top job.
I hesitate to mention his name because, frankly, it has become increasingly clear that no matter where you are in the world, you are Under His Eye. So why make it easy for them to increase the size of my no doubt already impressive FBI file? (Is it still the FBI?)
For the sake of my own mental health I have shied away from keeping track of every act of demagoguery oozing from the toxic waste dump across the Pacific. Bad enough that I live with a news junkie who just can’t stay off MSNBC.
But then this arseclownery crossed my desk.
For those of you without a Health Services Daily subscription – well worth the dollars, by the way – I shall give you a summary.
Australian researchers get about $400 million a year from the US government. Why? Well, it’s complete apathy about research from either the Australian government or local philanthropists. Either way, it’s not great.
Obviously, the US government has always had the right to choose where to put its money – what kind of research to invest in, etc. But presumably that conversation is had at some point before the money is handed over.
But now the US government – I used the word “government” loosely here: burgeoning dictatorship is more accurate – has sent a 36-point questionnaire to Australian universities and agencies such as the CSIRO, demanding answers to a set of questions that makes The Handmaid’s Tale look like a romcom.
You can read the whole questionnaire here. But here are few samples of the questions Australian researchers are being asked to answer:
- Does your organization have a clear policy prohibiting any collaboration, funding, or support for entities that advocate or implement policies contrary to US government interests, national security, and sovereignty?
- Can you confirm that your organization does not work with entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs?
- Can you confirm that your organization has not received ANY funding from the PRC (including Confucius Institutes and/or partnered with Chinese state or non-state actors), Russia, Cuba, or Iran?
- Can you confirm that this is no DEI project or DEI elements of the project?
- Can you confirm this is not a climate or “environmental justice” project or include such elements?
- Does this project take appropriate measures to protect women and to defend against gender ideology as defined in the below Executive Order? (Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government)
- What impact does this project have on protecting religious minorities, promoting religious freedom, and combatting Christian prosecution?
That executive order, by the way, is the one that dictates that “‘Sex’ shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female”.
One or the other, nothing in between, no fluidity, no ambiguity. You’re male or female. The end.
Other gems from the executive order include:
“Each agency and all Federal employees shall enforce laws governing sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations to protect men and women as biologically distinct sexes. Each agency should therefore give the terms ‘sex’, ‘male’, ‘female’, ‘men’, ‘women’, ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ the meanings set forth in section 2 of this order when interpreting or applying statutes, regulations, or guidance and in all other official agency business, documents, and communications.”
And,
“Agencies shall remove all statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications, or other internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology, and shall cease issuing such statements, policies, regulations, forms, communications or other messages. Agency forms that require an individual’s sex shall list male or female, and shall not request gender identity. Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology.”
So, to reiterate, Australian researchers are now, officially, risking their US dollars if they acknowledge the existence of gender diversity, not just in their specific, funded research, but in their institutions’ governing policies.
The Australian National University has already lost its US funding thanks to its answers to the questionnaire, while so far others, including the CSIRO, are remaining very careful, if not tightlipped in their public responses.
Who can blame them?
It’s not like Australian politicians are helping.
Education minister Jason Clare, in an interview with the ABC on Monday, confirmed that at least least seven Australian universities are conducting research “that’s either been suspended or stopped”, but refused to say that the US review constituted “foreign interference”.
“Ultimately, it’s up to the US about what research it wants to fund. We’re seeking further information from the US.”
Would the government fill the hole left by the withdrawal of US funds?
“I don’t think it’s practical for the Australian government to underwrite this sort of research,” said Mr Clare.
“But whether it’s the United States or whether it’s Europe or anybody else that collaborates with Australian universities, they know, like we know, that our universities are some of the best in the world. Our researchers are extraordinary. I encourage them to continue the work they’re doing.”
Yeh, thanks for that Jason.
Albo was even less interested when asked by one of the national media outlets about it yesterday.
“My focus is on what happens here in Australia, and what happens in tomorrow’s budget,” he said.
You have to wonder where exactly the line for “foreign interference” lies.
I’m crawling back under my rock now. Wake me when the wolves are at the door, will you? Ta.
If you haven’t been purged yet, send story tips to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au.
