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! 🎧

Education is a big focus:

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"...  🏡

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. 🤪

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

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:

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?! 👀

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).

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?

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.

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.

>>> Donate to the campaign <<<

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: We can't afford cancer drugs, but can afford THIS? 🤦‍♂️

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.

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:

Sounds like high quality science! 👀

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 🎶

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

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. 🏥

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.

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"...

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! 

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.

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 <<<

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.

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

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.