From: dmcm@coombs.anu.edu.au (David McMullen)
Newsgroups: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: AARNet Wars - the Vice-Chancellors strike back
Followup-To: aus.aarnet,comp.org.eff.talk
Date: 20 Dec 92 07:35:32 GMT
Organization: Australian National University
Distribution: inet
NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.76.2
Summary: There is no honour among thieves

"Government rejects claim of CRC pork-barrelling"

   By MARTIN THOMAS

THE Federal Government has rejected as outrageous and without
foundatlon accusations by one of the nation's leading vice-
chancellors that it indulged in pork-barrelling over its
allocation of research funds.

A spokesman for the Minister for Science and Technology, Mr
Free, rejected the attack by the vice-chancellor of Wollongong
University, Professor Ken McKinnon, on the allocation of money
this week for Coperative Research Centres.

(The CRC announcement revealed a $5 million cut in the promised
budget for the upgrade of the universities' communications
network, AARNet.)

Mr Free's spokesman said Professor McKinnon's attack questioned
the integrity of the high-level CRC committee;

"They are extraordinary allegations without foundation and I
would encourage him to produce evidence about these claims
criticising the entire membership of the CRC committee and two
panels which where charged with selecting the best possible
centres," the minister's spokesman said.

The spokesman said Mr Free had accepted in their entirety the
committee's recommendations for the third and final round of
CRCs announced on Monday.

The 14-member CRC committee. includlng leading figures in
science and industry had made the selection after receiving
information from two panels and an expert advisory group, the
spokesman said.

Professor McKinnon claimed the Government had dished out
'dollops of cash' to politically sensitive areas or States.

The professor, who is also president of the Australian Vice-
Chancellors Committee, stressed that he was speaking in his
capacity as Wollongong chief executive.

In its announcement on Monday, the Government cut S5 million
off promised funding for the AVVC backed AARNet project - a move
which enraged the group.

At a meeting in Canberra yesterday, the AVCC board of directors
considered pulling out of the project but eventually agreed to
accept the $3.4 million in funds and take their place on the
board of the new Research Data Network CRC.

Funding for the upgrade of AARNet-the Australian Academic Research 
Network will flow as part of the Research Data Network.

Professor McKinnon told the HES that the general allocation of
the CRC funding had not been based on scientific grounds but
had been used to serve political purposes.

"As an observer of the CRC (selection) process I no longer
believe it is decided on genuine scientific matters; instead,
it is acutely political and it should be seen as such," he told
the HES. "It is subject to political pork-barrelling."

Professor McKinnon said he believed more scientists needed to
be involved in the selection process.

He warned that the nation's research effort would suffer a
serious setback as a result of the Government's move to
"renege" on funding for the AARNet upgrade.

The Govemment had backed away from its $I3 million Budget
commitment to AARNet and its contribution had been "whittled
away to a mere" $3.4 million. "The promised funding must be
forthcoming or Australia's research effort will suffer a further
serious setback at a time when it is needed most," he said.

"AARNet is playing a major role in underpinning research and
development in Australia. It is, at relatively low cost,
cutting away the distance disadvantage suffered by Australian
research."

Professor McKinnon said a renegotiation after the Budget had
meant AARNet was to receive $8.5 million.

"The ($3.4 million) funding is a total distortion of the
original intention. It was meant to be a highspeed data network
which would put Australia at the forefront in the world ... but
it cannot meet its objective with this meagre funding," he
said.

"We are extremely disappointed."

A joint statement by the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, and the
Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Free, emphasised the
importance of the network.

"This initiative will address one of the major needs for
research infrastructure identitifed by the Australian Science
and Technology Council." the statement said.

The manager of AARNet, Mr Geoff Huston, said reduced funding
meant reduced capacity which would lead to a slower,
overcrowded network.

"It will be the end user that suffers most," he said.

Mr Huston said there were other options for the system and just
because the Government had not taken a leading hand in the
technology, it by no means spelt the death of it.

A proposed CRC in Global Intelligence Advanced Network
Telecommunication Services, involving the University of
Wollongong, Telecom. Hewlett-Packard and Nortel, was rejected
by the Government for a second time. Among the information and
communications technology CRCs was a centre for Broadband
Telecommunications and Networking, which included the
participation of Curtin University of Technology.

But Professor McKinnon did not comment on individual research
projects. He said he was concerned about the overall procedure.

"I don't want to be seen as whingeing; the University of
Wollongong got its fair share. But it seems that the money
never goes to the right project for the right reasons," he
said.

[Australian, Wed 16 December 1992, page 11 
HES = Higher Education Section]