Letters to Universities

Question

Senator KOVACIC: Ms Joldi?, could I trouble you to table the letters that you sent to the universities this week. Ms Joldi?: Absolutely. Senator KOVACIC: Thank you so much. Mr Cook: Do you want them all, from the first letter we sent to all universities? Senator KOVACIC: That would be great. ........ Senator KOVACIC: Noting we're almost at the break and my next question might be a bit longer, in that case, Ms Joldi?, could I trouble you to give me a brief overview of what was in those letters while we wait for them to be tabled. Just a rough sense of that would be great. Mr Cook: The first letter was actually just what Mr Moore said: advising universities they should not be entering into agreements with those three foreign countries- Senator KOVACIC: Specifically around research security? I'm particularly interested in that. Ms Joldi?: I don't have the specific Macquarie letter on me, but I can take you through the gist of some of the general letters that I sent in March. As the secretary mentioned, we were very clear. The letter was seeking information that there was no current collaboration between researchers at this specific university. As I said, I've written to all of the vice-chancellors in relation to entities in Iran, DPRK and the Russian Federation. I think universities are all collaborating with us in providing that information. I also asked them to consider the researcher-to-researcher-level engagement that they'd had and provide examples if they had them. The letter also clearly outlined that we strongly discourage any institutional or research collaboration with the countries as mentioned before. Then I went through what the expectation of the government is. I'm very happy to table the letters from March but also the letters that I've sent as recently as this week.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000724.pdf (opens in a new tab)