December 19, 2024
The Coalition has accused Labor of targeted payback against a think tank for its criticism of China and has warned that the recommendations of a review into strategic policy advice will weaken engagement with Washington just as Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The review of $40 million of annual think-tank funding suggests that block funding of four institutions – including the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute – should be replaced by competitive bids in the coming years. It also wants to close the ASPI office in Washington that was opened with a $5 million grant just a few years ago.
Labor’s decision to agree fully or in principle with most of the review’s recommendations prompted the Coalition to accuse it of bias against ASPI. The timing of the government’s response – which came five months after it received the report’s recommendations – has also angered those affected.
“It’s surprising, disappointing and a misjudgment,” said ASPI executive director Justin Bassi. “With wars in Europe and the Middle East, increased aggression in the South China Sea, daily reports of cyberattacks, and the beginning of a very important Trump administration, the decision to cut funding to a Washington office is untimely to say the least.”
The looming federal election further complicated planning, he noted. The Coalition has vowed to reverse any funding changes, meaning the Washington office funding could possibly be cut and then reinstated before it runs out on June 30.
ASPI council member and former deputy prime minister John Anderson slammed Labor for appearing to cave in to Beijing’s demands as set out in a 2020 list of “14 grievances” that included government funding for “anti-China” research.
“I regard the review as dreadful, frankly. I am amazed the government has picked it up. Plainly it gives the government of the day the ability to nobble ASPI’s work,” he said.
“It would be seen as a capitulation in Beijing and Washington. It will be seen as a capitulation to the 14 demands. There is no other way of putting it and I think the optics are dreadful.”
Mr Anderson, who was in cabinet when the Howard government first funded ASPI in 2001, threatened to quit the think tank’s board.
“If the government can’t mount a convincing case that they really do respect ASPI’s work, then I would have to consider it,” he said.
The review carried out by University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese also recommends that the government get involved in think-tank activities, including through the leaders of national security agencies helping direct work priorities.
The government backed the review’s call to end recurring funding for ASPI, the United States Studies Centre and two other think tanks, though a two-year extension of current funding would mean the institutions would not have to compete for a new round until June 2027.
ASPI believes the end of recurring funding would make it more difficult to do the job the Howard government set it up to do: provide government with “external contestability”.
Not everyone agrees. Other think tanks that don’t get block funding believe it is an unfair advantage and say few institutions operate on that basis internationally. However, the Varghese review is widely seen to have been politically motivated – even by those who agree with the recommendations.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said shutting the ASPI Washington office would be a mistake and would weaken ties between Canberra and the new Trump administration.
“This is the time that we should be looking to maximise our influence in Washington, DC, as almost every other government in the world is doing,” he said.
“We know that ASPI was hugely influential on the thinking of the first Trump administration, and we should want to maintain that, not weaken it.”
Senator Paterson said Labor should avoid any decisions that would make think tanks such as ASPI subject to the whims of the government of the day.
“I don’t think the government has appreciated the criticism that ASPI has made of some of their policy agenda, on defence and national security, and they clearly want to bring them to heel,” he said.
“The recommendation about having government bureaucrats sitting in on council meetings is truly bizarre. Council members are already appointed by the government, and that’s the appropriate avenue to direct the strategy.
“Having bureaucrats monitoring them is really Orwellian.”
ASPI’s block funding was, until the Albanese government’s election win in 2022, rolled over every five years. ASPI’s accounts show these funds made up 28 per cent of its revenue in the 2023 financial year. Additional funding from various federal government agencies accounted for another 29.2 per cent.
The think tank has written about Chinese military involvement in Australian universities, the spread of Uighur detention camps in Xinjiang and Chinese intelligence agents.
