The National Tertiary Education Union intends to ask if intelligence agencies are spying on academics – which may not get much of a response

But what we do know is that the Australian Research Council has increased its inclusion of “sensitivities,” added to the personnel files researchers provide for funding applications. ARC CEO Sue Thomas says the council is working with intel agencies “to inform the sorts of scans we do,” (CMM yesterday).

The NTEU says it will ask the ARC, “what kind of information is being collected and what transparency is in place around this process to ensure there is natural and procedural fairness, such as what grounds are there for a researcher to seek to view their ‘files’ and challenge the accuracy of the information.”

In Senate Estimates on Friday Kim Carr (Labor-Victoria) asked if, “individuals get natural justice and procedural fairness on reports (which) can lead to a person not getting a grant.” The ARC’s Kylie Emery replied that universities are grant applicants and that, “natural justice is provided to applicants.”