At least seven universities in Australia have already had American funding for research projects paused or cancelled as part of US President Donald Trump’s fascistic and militarist “Make America Great Again” agenda.
Already, $600 million in joint research efforts involving partnerships with American institutes and universities have been cut or threatened, with more likely to come, placing further financial and ideological pressure on Australia’s chronically-underfunded 39 public universities.
First of all, the White House axed funding through its demolition of agencies such as USAID [US Agency for International Development], the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
Secondly, US agencies sent a 36-point questionnaire to researchers around the world this month. This political interrogation basically demanded that all research serve US military and strategic interests, as well as the Trump administration’s unprecedented offensive against government jobs, social services, science, public health, public education, environmental protection and “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) programs.
Australia’s federal Education Department said on Friday it was aware that the Trump administration had cut funding to at least seven universities, including the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Technology Sydney, University of NSW, Charles Darwin University and Macquarie University.
Far from opposing this assault, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor government is advising university managements to comply with it.
Vicki Thomson, the chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8), comprising the wealthiest universities, told Nine network newspapers that some academics at European universities had chosen not to respond to the survey, but: “The advice we got from our government is, ‘You probably should respond’.”
The Australian Financial Review reported that Education Minister Jason Clare said the US could fund “whatever research it wants to fund” and “we will continue to make the case to the US that collaborative research benefits both the US and Australia’s interests.”
This is in line with the Labor government’s determination not to say a word of criticism of the Trump administration’s fascistic agenda, but rather to accommodate to it. This agenda features sacking tens of thousands of public sector workers, gutting education, health and social programs, executing illegal mass deportations, escalating the genocide in Gaza and laying claim to key strategic locations such as Greenland and the Panama Canal to prepare for war against China, the main designated threat to US hegemony.
To be completed and returned within 48 hours, the five-page questionnaire featured questions such as: “Can you confirm that your organisation does not work with entities associated with communist, socialist or totalitarian parties, or any party that espouses anti-American beliefs.”
Another question demanded to know whether the researchers’ university prohibits collaboration, funding or support for policies that are “contrary to US government interests, national security, and sovereignty.” Other questions insisted that projects must help in ending “illegal immigration,” “strengthening US border security” and support “efforts to strengthen US supply chains or secure rare earth minerals.”
In Australian universities and research institutes, these dictates imperil hundreds of jobs. This is escalating the pressure on the country’s public universities, which are already axing more than 2,000 jobs as a direct result of the Albanese government’s reactionary cuts to international student enrolments and continued under-funding of universities.
According to the Nine newspapers, some researchers who have answered the questionnaire have had their US funding reinstated. Others, who asked why they had to answer the questions, were sent a copy of a memorandum from the White House to the heads of US executive departments and agencies.
“The use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and Green New Deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve,” the memorandum said.
This document required US federal agencies to identify and review all federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities “consistent with the President’s policies and requirements.”
It demanded compliance with Trump’s barrage of executive orders, starting with January 20’s “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which Trump has imposed as the basis for illegal deportations of pro-Palestinian and other political opponents.
The US is Australia’s biggest research partner. In 2024, US government funding to Australian research organisations totalled $386 million, the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) estimates.
By comparison, the Australian government provides only about $800 million annually in non-medical research funding via the Australian Research Council (ARC).
A chilling and repressive atmosphere is already spreading throughout Australian universities as a result of pro-US and pro-war measures taken by the Albanese government with the bipartisan backing of the Liberal-National Coalition.
These measures include far-reaching “military secrets” laws that place researchers, research institutes and companies in danger of being prosecuted and jailed for collaborating, directly or indirectly, with overseas colleagues, except for those from the US and UK.
The Crikey website reported last week: “While not explicitly mentioning China, most Australian universities now require staff to declare whether they or their close associates have links to foreign governments or government-related entities and individuals.
“Indeed, the adoption of these ‘best practice’ measures has led many Australian researchers, especially Chinese-Australian scientists, to abandon their collaborations with China-based academics or, in some cases, to leave Australia.”
Despite widespread opposition among educators and students, anti-genocide academics are also being witch-hunted in order to intimidate any dissent. That includes Macquarie University scholar Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has had her $870,000 ARC Future Fellowship grant suspended at the behest of Education Minister Clare.
There is also intense concern among university staff and students over the adoption by Universities Australia, the employers’ body, of a new definition of antisemitism, inspired by Zionist groups, that essentially prohibits criticism of Israel and its mounting crimes against humanity.
Starved of government funding, the universities have become more dependent on war-related research, as well as attracting full fee-paying international students. There are expanding ties with military conglomerates, such as the Lockheed Martin research centre at the University of Melbourne.
Labor’s financial squeeze is bound up with its Universities Accord, which demands a further restructuring of universities in return for “national priorities” funding, to satisfy the employment and research demands of the corporate elite and preparations for war, including the AUKUS military pact.
The main campus trade union, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), backs Labor’s Accord. It has tried to sow illusions in the Albanese government by appealing to it to “push back” against “Donald Trump’s hateful agenda.” At the same time, it has remained silent on the Trump administration’s demand for an unconditional alignment behind US militarism.
In order to fight this catastrophic agenda, university workers and students need to form rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, to link up with workers in Australia and worldwide through the International Workers’ Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. This is part of a broader, necessary struggle against capitalism itself and its program of ever-greater corporate wealth and turn to war.
To discuss how to form rank-and-file committees, please contact the Committee for Public Education (CFPE), the rank-and-file educators’ network.
Contact the CFPE:
Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com
Facebook: facebook.com/commforpubliceducation
Twitter: CFPE_Australia
Facebook: facebook.com/groups/opposeaeusellout