Impact of the Defence Trade Controls Bill on academic freedom
Today in the Sydney Morning Herald, the University of Sydney's DVC Research Jill Trewhella has written a notable opinion piece about the proposed Defence Trade Controls Bill, proposed legislation that seeks to implement Australia's treaty obligations under the the 2007 Australia-United States Defence Trade Co-operation Treaty by imposing a potentially burdensome regulatory regime upon academics, researchers and research institutions (such as universities) involved in a wide range of basic strategic and applied research.
The legislation is set to hit parliament for debate, although the Senate Committee reviewing the legislation has called for a roundtable committee convened by the Chief Scientist to be convened to ensure proper consultation with the sector. Prof Jill Trewhella's comments about the implications for the academic freedom of university staff are highly pertinent, as the specific detail of the Defence Department's intended permit arrangement is not written into legislation, and thus its consequences cannot be exactly predicted, other than the fact that the transmission or transfer of certain kinds of scientific research without a Defence permit is intended to be attract criminal penalty of up to ten years imprisonment.
Comments
[ -1 ] Thanks for your strongly worded comments Dr Polya. I'd just like to draw your attention to the blog post following up this matter. http://www.nteu.org.au/article/NTEU-sets-out-concerns-on-the-proposed-Defence-Trade-Controls-Bill-13498
Like • Dislike •[ +4 ] As revealed by ABC radio National "Saturday Extra" (see 13 October 2012, Saturday Extra re “Why Defence Bill threatens Australian research and innovation”, according to Universities Australia (UA; representing 39 Australian universities) the US-inspired "Defence Trade Controls Bill 2011)" "creates considerable uncertainty for universities about their ability to engage in these teaching and research activities lawfully...". This Bill has already passed the House of Representatives and only needs approval of the overwhelmingly Coalition-Labor dominated Senate. This outrageous Bill will (according to UA) make it an offence (up to 10 years in prison) for a university (and hence any citizen) to supply information, assistance or training to non-Australians in relation to thousands of (currently publicly unavailable?) goods listed on the Defence and Strategic Goods List (DGSL) that comprises 353 pages, listing thousands of goods. The US-beholden Labor Government in this one move is potentially wrecking Australian universities, especially in relation to educating over 240,000 overseas students annually in a shrinking "education export industry" now worth $16 billion annually. Such students simply won’t spend big money to be lied to and malinformed by Government-intimidated and censored academics.
Like • Dislike •The most “dangerous goods” one supposes relate to IT and electronics (goodbye to world-leading computer research in Australia), microbiology (goodbye to medical, biotechnology and microbiological research in Australia ) and to potentially toxic synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals and their precursors (goodbye to chemical, pharmaceutical and pharmacological research in Australia). This is national scientific and intellectual suicide - indeed a massive attack on the science-based security of Australians by scientifically-illiterate politicians. It is conceivable that the list of many books to be banned would include my own huge 860 page pharmacological text "The Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds. A pharmacological reference guide to sites of action and biological effects" (published by Taylor & Francis & CRC Press, in London and New York in 2003) that deals with tens of thousands of naturally occurring and synthetic toxic compounds. This transcends book-burning fascism – this is a massive attack on the science-based security of Australians by scientifically-illiterate, US-beholden politicians. This means 10 years in prison for decent, patriotic academics just doing their job. This is the latest of a succession of betrayals of decent Labor voters by US-beholden, pro-war, pro-coal, pro-gas, pro-iron ore, anti-environment, anti-Indigenous, pro-Educational Apartheid Labor. As an NTEU member of long standing I urge all NTEU members and indeed everybody to vote 1 Green and put Labor last (appallingly, the Coalition are actually better in some respects than neoliberal Labor and at least have not actually betrayed Labor voters).