Friend

Last week, I emailed you about some of the ridiculous wastage of taxpayer money by the Health Research Council.

We received an absolute barrage of emails in response – with 99% having the same reaction as us: things need to change in Wellington.

I promised you there'd be more to come, and today we're turning our attention to another of the great research quangos that our research team has been looking into: the Marsden Fund, which is managed by the Royal Society of New Zealand.

What's the Royal Society and its Marsden Fund all about?



The Royal Society boasts a long and proud tradition of excellence, tracing its origins to the esteemed English counterpart established in 1660, with the New Zealand branch being founded back in 1867.

By way of example, the New Zealand physicist who split the atom, Lord Rutherford, was one of the original 20 Royal Society Fellows appointed in 1919 and is just one example of the organisation recognising scientific brilliance.

The Marsden Fund is reserved for top-tier research funding. The Fund (according to the Society's website) "Supports excellence in science, engineering, maths, social sciences and the humanities in New Zealand by providing grants for investigator-initiated research".

The Marsden Fund is supposed to be the crème de la crème of New Zealand academia, showcasing the highest standards of scholarly excellence and innovation. Managed (apparently) with the utmost integrity and a steadfast commitment to advancing knowledge, the Marsden Fund stands as a beacon of academic prestige and intellectual rigour.

Friend, you can see where this is going can't you?

Although a private not-for-profit, the vast majority of funding for the Royal Society comes from you, and other humble taxpayers. The Marsden Fund money is all from the Government taxpayers.

Last year, the taxpayer funding amounted to $83.5 million – almost exactly what's needed to fund the 13 cancer drugs that we, apparently, "can't afford" ***(although that could be about to change, if media speculation that an announcement is coming this afternoon is correct)***.

Here is some of the "research" the Royal Society has "invested" your tax dollars in:

First up, let's look at how the guardians of the Marsden Fund are tackling the scourge of crime – crime podcasts that is... So-called 'sofa sleuths' will love this research grant – as will one lucky academic, who will be paid to listen, and write about, crime podcasts from around the world! 🎧

Grant ID: 23-MAU-004 

Recipient: Dr CS Bjork, Massey University

Sound Judgments? Assessing the Rhetorics of Civic Deliberation in True Crime Podcasting

With nearly one billion downloads globally, the skyrocketing popularity of true crime podcasting has sparked intense debate among scholars. Some decry the genre’s perpetuation of racist stereotypes and misogynistic narratives, while others celebrate its potential to advocate for social justice. But true crime podcasting also illuminates important recent developments in the longstanding relationship between rhetoric and civic discourse in democratic societies. Through the lens of rhetoric, Sound Judgments? will explore how true crime podcasting provides significant insights into the perplexing yet fundamental civic process of making collective judgments in a digital age.

Approved funding: $360,000

Education is a big focus:

Grant ID: 23-UOA-164 

Recipient: Dr A Pasley, University of Auckland

Co-designing and Decolonising Gender Education: Exploring What It Means for Gender Diverse Students to Thrive in Schools

"Collaborating with gender diverse students, this research operationalises whole-school approaches to gender diversity-affirming education... Fundamentally, this research acknowledges the colonial inheritance of gender norms, providing gender diverse young people with a platform to decolonise conventional approaches to sexuality education and how gendered expectations permeate education"

Approved funding: $360,000

You read that right. Gender norms (i.e. "boys" and "girls") being, in fact, just an inheritance of colonisation is, we understand, a very widely held view by those in charge of New Zealand's premier scientific fund. 🤷‍♂️

Or what about housing? That's an important issue facing New Zealand right now. Especially the "experience of homes"...  🏡

Grant ID: 23-UOO-037 

Recipient: Dr ES Chisholm, Otago University

Making a home in employer-provided housing

Across the world, people in a broad range of professions live in housing provided by their employers. Yet little is known about life in employer-provided housing. This project will draw on theories of power to investigate how a single relationship that secures both housing and employment affects experience of homes, and analyse differences over time and between different sectors of working.



Approved funding: $360,000

360 grand to interview people on "their life" and "experience" in an employer-owned home! Crème de la crème research, indeed.

Now for this one, the only explanation is that someone has selected the random words "sexuality", "food", "identity", and "socialisation" and, somehow, by putting it in a word blender (AI perhaps?) submitted it for a grant.

And for the effort, they won a 360 grand grant! Creative, yes! Worthy? Scientific? Enlightening? You be the judge. 🤪

Grant ID: 23-MAU-082 

Recipient: Dr HL Black, Massey University

Kua kī taku puku, ko te waha o raro kei te hiakai tonu: The de-sexualisation of te reo Māori domains

"...founded on tikanga Māori and kaupapa Māori, this research will identify how sexuality was traditionally expressed and defined by examining... harihari kai (happy eating), pao (singing), haka, pūrākau (legendary, mythical stories), ngeri (chanting) and idiomatic expressions... contribut[ing] to a body of mātauranga on te reo Māori and sexuality by investigating how sexuality, food, identity, and socialisation are all part of a complex and interwoven Māori cultural worldview."

Approved funding: $360,000

Here's another one also involving food, which is pretty critical for New Zealand's economy, right?

Grant ID: 23-VUW-122  

Recipient: Associate Professor JT Smith, Victoria University of Wellington

Seeding Hope: The Diverse Roles of Indigenous Women in Food Systems

"Women are the key seed savers, knowledge keepers and advocates in Indigenous food systems which acknowledge the sovereign capacities of nature, treat food as medicine, as a teacher and a relative. Yet there is little research that investigates the work Indigenous women do within these food systems. We develop a mana wahine analysis that draws on kōrero from Indigenous food growers and advocates across five diverse Indigenous food systems (Aotearoa, Hawaii, India, Peru and Turtle Island). Our global approach offers a new Indigenous-to-Indigenous framework to more deeply understand Indigenous women’s roles, values and practices regarding food, seed and soil sovereignty."

Approved funding: $861,000

Before you say $861,000 is too much, remember that this research will necessarily involve having to (god forbid) travel (business class, of course) to India, Hawaii, Peru, and Turtle Island (Fiji) to speak to indigenous woman and try their food.

Let's turn to a more respectable subject. Like legal research:

Grant ID: 23-UOO-218 

Recipient: Professor BJ Schonthal, Otago University

Mapping Buddhist Law in Asia 

"Despite decades of scholarship documenting the influences of Christian law on Western legal culture, scholars have ignored... Buddhist law on legal cultures in Asia. This project... produc[es] the first comprehensive account of Buddhist law as a complex transhistorical, transregional legal tradition... [and] will yield crucial new knowledge about a tradition of law that has shaped human societies..."

Approved funding: $660,000

Who knew Buddha had in mind New Zealand's taxpayers when he said "Give, even if you only have a little." 🙇‍♂️

Okay, more serious now. Let's turn to kids books – surely they can't screw that up, right? Right?! 👀

Grant ID: 23-UOW-011 

Recipient: Associate Professor N Daly, University of Waikato

Picture Books in Aotearoa: The design and content of picture books reflecting indigenous language, culture and evolving national identities

"Picturebooks are a powerful form of children’s literature... Our project... explor[es] best practice for authentic respectful representations of Indigenous languages and identities throughout the publishing process. Our interdisciplinary team will... undertak[e] a Kaupapa Māori driven investigation, to document and explore the ways in which Indigenous voices are and can be authentically represented in picturebooks."

Approved funding: $660,000

So indigenous language but in picture books? The poor Associate Professor got $660,000 to discover that there is not a lot of words or language in picture books (that's kind of the point, eh?). 😂 😂 😂 

We looked up the Associate Professor, and according to her bio: 

I am a sociolinguist interested in the language hierarchies present in children's literature. I am also interested in the pedagogical potential of picturebooks for social justice in educational contexts from early childhood settings through to tertiary contexts. I teach courses in children's literature and supervise Masters and PhD students in children's literature and language-related topics.

You'd think if anyone knew picture books lack language, it would be the good Associate Professor.

And, just like the Health Research Council, you can't do science anymore without religion... ☪️ (and any views to the contrary are hate-speech).

Grant ID: 23-VUW-025 

Recipient: Dr AZ Arkilic, Victoria University of Wellington

Embracing Islam: Conversion, Identity, and Belonging in Aotearoa New Zealand

Conversion to Islam in Aotearoa remains under-researched… Co-designed by a born Muslim and a Māori Muslim convert... The study will challenge prevailing political interpretations of Islamic conversion that emphasise radicalisation. Ultimately, by improving our understanding... and exploring the role of religion in a decolonising, post-Christian Aotearoa, it will offer novel insights into national identity, demographics, and citizenship.

Approved funding: $360,000

How did this rot set in? You can thank our old friend, Grant Robertson 🙏

The problem with the Marsden Fund can be traced back bill introduced in 2010 when a (then) little known Labour MP, Grant Robertson, put up the rather innocuous-sounding Royal Society of New Zealand Amendment Bill.

Eventually unanimously passed in 2012, the main thing it did was to change the Object of the Royal Society from "the advancement and promotion of science and technology..." to "the advancement and promotion in New Zealand of science, technology, and the humanities."

It defined "humanities" to include "languages, history, religion, philosophy, law, classics, linguistics, literature, cultural studies, media studies, art history, film, and drama”.

That change has given tofu-munching, climate-striking, purple-haired academics carte blanche to get funding for all manner of 'research' projects that simply don't bring any return on investment to the taxpayers who pay for them.

Friend, will you support our effort to pressure the new Government to reverse the 2012 law change and re-focus science money on, well, SCIENCE? <[link removed]>

The National Party can't escape blame for this. Despite MPs expressing doubts about the Robertson-sponsored law-change, the then John Key Government backed the widening of the scope which has seen science money diverted more and more into ridiculous humanities projects like those listed above.

With the new Government, we can get them to see sense and repeal the changes. But to force change, and educate the public, we are counting on your support. <[link removed]>

National, ACT, and NZ First promised to get a handle on wasteful spending. Here's an excellent opportunity for them walk the talk!

Friend it's time we got the Government to scrap the nonsense and redirect the money to actual science or, better yet, the cancer drugs Australians get, but we (apparently) cannot afford. <[link removed]>

>>> Donate to the campaign <<< <[link removed]>

Thank you for your support.


Jordan Williams
Executive Director
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

From: Jordan Williams
Sent:Wednesday, June 19, 2024 12:31 PM
To:
Subject:Wecan'taffordcancerdrugs, butcanaffordTHIS? 🤦‍♂️

<[link removed]>

Dear Friend,

While cancer patients wait for the Government to "find the money" to fund desperately needed modern drugs, the very money meant for health research and saving lives is being flushed down the toilet.

At our weekly staff meeting this morning, the research team took me through the latest batch of grant funding decisions by the Health Research Council.

My heart sank, Friend.

I wanted to get the information in front of you ASAP so you can judge for yourself. I'm emailing to ask for your support so we can expose the wasteful spending and force the Government to redirect the cash to modern cancer medicines. <[link removed]>

Friend, you won't believe the nonsense Wellington is getting away with!

But first, let's remind ourselves what the Health Research Council is. 

According to their website, their purpose is to "support high-quality, high-impact research by investing in People, Ideas and Priorities." They describe themselves as "the home of health research in New Zealand" and "here to improve the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders through our process of identifying and supporting high-quality, high-value research that delivers far-reaching impact within the health and science landscape."

You can see where this is going...

Here are a few examples of just the first round of 2024 funding:

Hapai te hauora: Breathing your ancestors into life

"Hāpai te hauora’ as ‘breathing your ancestors into life’, captures the breadth & connections of a generation – rangatahi Māori–a generation moving forward together. This proposal builds on an HRC funded project (18/651) exploring the ways rangatahi Māori make sense of & live hāpai te hauora through navigating journeys of hauora & wellbeing."

Approved funding: $649,992

Sounds like high quality science! 👀

Timely access to rongoa Māori in cancer care services for Māori

"Prior to Europeans arriving in Aotearoa, traditional Māori way of healing was the only hauora practice Māori knew. Today, traditonal Māori healing is known as Rongoā Māori. Rongoā Māori is diverse and can include karakia [prayer], wai [water], waiata [music], himene [hymns], access to the ngahere [forest] and whenua [land].

For Māori health consumers, patients and whānau accessing cancer care service; seldom they are made aware of or referred early to rongoā Māori practitioners at the beginning of their cancer care journey.

Using tikanga Māori methodology and codesign with Māori health and iwi providers, our method will include interviews, and hui with rongoā Māori practitioners, Māori and Iwi providers, Māori health consumers, patients, their whānau, and health professionals in primary and secondary care in the MidCentral region to explore ways for timely access to rongoā Māori in cancer care services for Māori."

Approved funding: $398,771

Rather than fund the actual cancer medicines, the Government is funding "timely access" to cancer treatments witch-doctor cancer treatments. Ka pai!

If that doesn't work, there is always music therapy 🎶

He Whiringa Māramatanga: Kaupapa Māori Music and healing

"‘He Whiringa Māramatanga’ examines Kaupapa Māori music theories and practices as a pathway to accelerating Māori well-being. Music theory is primarily located within Western music notation, harmony, and tonality. However, Māori Music, particularly through oral forms such as waiata, karakia, ruruku, haka, pūrākau and whakapapa, illustrate that Māori have unique key elements of musical theories to create oral legacies and that traditional Western definitions of ‘music’ may be confining for true Māori creative expression."

Approved funding:$377,550

Or maybe barbershop is more your [cancer's] thing? 🎤💈

Health Promotion Interventions for Pacific men in a Barbershop

"A rapid review and qualitative interviews with Pacific men, Pacific heath promoters and Pacific barbers will inform the development of a Pacific health promoting behaviour change framework and intervention programme in a barbershop setting owned by a Pacific health provider. This first of its kind research in New Zealand brings together an underserved population, a non-traditional setting for health promotion and culturally unique health promotion interventions delivered by an unconventional health and wellbeing workforce (barbers)."

Approved funding:$150,000

Or how about, rather than fixing hospitals, or building nicer family waiting rooms, we splurge $150k on a study to understand the space?! Thanks to the Health Research Council, a very well paid 'space cadet' is coming to the rescue. 🏥

Building room for equity: Culture centred design of hospital waiting rooms

"Hospitals in Aotearoa New Zealand have a legacy founded in colonialism and are designed to Eurocentric principles of health and well-being – as such they are inequitable by design and represent culturally unsafe spaces for many people who need to access them. Hospital waiting rooms represent one such space. Our project is premised on understanding how physical spaces in hospitals shape people’s experiences of care."

Approved funding:$150,000

For our religious taxpayers, there's one for you too! 🙌

Research into Hine te Iwaiwa (who was the wife of Tinirau and is known as the spiritual guardian of childbirth who assists at the entrance into, and the exits from this world) is, as we understand it, worth a lot of money cutting-edge science.

Guided by Hine te Iwaiwa: Exploring Maramataka [traditional Māori lunar calendar] influence on pregnancy Outcomes

"This research aims to explore the effects of incorporating the maramataka, a traditional Māori lunar calendar system guided by the goddess Hine te Iwaiwa, into the context of pregnancy care for wāhine Māori and Maori Midwives."

Approved funding:$400,000

And then there's the help for our Pacific friends. 🌴

Remember, these grants are not for front-line services to help Pacific communities, but rather to "support high-quality, high-impact research"...

Development of a Fijian Model of Health

"The research seeks to develop a Fijian Health Model to address Fijian peoples health in Aotearoa New Zealand."

Approved funding:$649,561

Here's a thought: why not get New Zealand's own health model right (to serve everyone living here) before we start ethnic segmentation of our health system?

Then there's this grant, for nothing other than to support an academic's professional development! 

He Kaakaakura Whakamaatau [Translation: An Experimental Green]

"This programme of senior leadership research and training for Dr Belinda Borell will build on her expertise in kaupapa Māori research and enable her to pursue a development and capacity building plan to grow both her expertise and that of emerging researchers. Focusing on historical trauma, mixed methods will explore poverty and abuse in care."

Approved funding:$649,997

We had a quick look into Dr Borell. If you thought her work was, well, scientific, I've got some bad news.

This is her Massey University profile:

Belinda (Ngati Ranginui, Ngai Te Rangi, Whakatōhea) has recently completed her PhD, The Nature of the Gaze: a conceptual discussion of societal privilege from an indigenous perspective.  The thesis explores how Kaupapa Māori paradigms can make important contributions to research topics that may not be of direct or immediate relevance to Māori communities. Insights gained from a Kaupapa Māori investigation of white privilege in Aotearoa New Zealand are discussed. The thesis argues that cultural hegemony is maintained through structured forgetting, silence, and suppression of dissent which has dire consequences for dominant cultural groups as well as marginal. Structural racism and privilege are amenable to analyses utilising similar frameworks albeit from opposite sides that can provide valuable insights to understanding inequity more broadly. I also examine ways in which Kaupapa Māori analyses of white privilege can illuminate pathways of redress that will benefit all New Zealanders and provide more embracing perspectives of nationhood.

Dr Borell was also recently awarded the Hohua Tutengaehe Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand to further her research into societal privilege.

Congratulations to Belinda for the $649,997 for her 'professional development'. Who knew navel gazing paid so well!? 🥳 🎉

Friend, that's just a taste!

Friend, these are just a selection of the nutty grants that the Taxpayers' Union will be highlighting over the coming weeks.

But make no mistake, while we can laugh about the decisions being made in Wellington, for the parents of those kids sitting on oncology wards, there is no humour in this. 

More than $30 million of the Health Research Council's annual budget of $125 million seems to have very little to do with health. That money alone is nearly half what is needed to fund the 13 cancer drugs that weren't in last month's budget.

The cancer drugs are not unaffordable, Friend, it's a matter of priority.

If you agree that the sorts of grants listed above are not a good use of your money, I'm asking you to chip in so we can put an end to this madness and redirect this money to front-line health and actual scientific research. <[link removed]>

Support us to force the Government to take on the academic establishment and vested interests running these rorts

We all know the "experts" will scream to the media the moment the Government touches so-called "science money". That's why the Taxpayers' Union is needed to counter their spin and expose outfits like the "Health Research Council" for what they're doing with our money.

Like so much in government, things get captured. The Health Research Council is now just a group of self-interested academics giving our money to other self-interested academics (if you can call them that).

Friend, will you support the Taxpayers' Union to force fiscal reprioritisation so that this money goes to actual scientific research and front-line medicines like cancer drugs?

>>> Donate to the campaign <<< <[link removed]>

While Nicola Willis can shift some of the blame for the underfunding of Pharmac onto the last Labour Government, it simply isn't good enough to suggest there isn't enough to plug the gap, when we are still spraying money up the wall on nonsense like this. She needs political pressure to make the tough decisions and push back against the woke bureaucracy and academic establishment making these decisions. <[link removed]>

As you can see, Friend, the money isn't going to where they say it is. We can win this – are you with me? <[link removed]>

Thank you for your support.


Jordan Williams
Executive Director
New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union

ps. The Taxpayers' Union can only hold the Government's feet to the fire with support from people like you. Make a secure and confidential donation here so we can force the Government to take on the "academic establishment" running these rorts. <[link removed]>



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