A.E. Thompson: Collins' Over-correction on the Marsden Fund in 2024

The Marsden Fund was established by the government in 1994 and we the population pay for it through taxes. After Grant Robinson changed the qualifying criteria for its funding awards, Judith Collins has now reset those criteria to be closer to the foundational purpose of the Fund. From Collins' responses on the matter in parliament on 17/12/2024 (You Tube: "Taxpayers' Union | Judith Collins deals with Marsden Fund questions in Parliament"), she seems to be ignorant on the topic of science. Good research on social issues is as much science as are chemistry, physics etc. If she knew what she was talking about she would have simply emphasized that she is making Marsden Fund focus on particular types of science closer to that envisaged in setting up the Fund.

Collins probably felt hamstrung by the fact that most of the funded projects that did not belong in the realm of science were Maori-related. To avoid being shouted down with accusations of racism, she focused only on a few non-Maori-related examples.

However, she was correct in asserting that a number of the projects generously funded by the Marsden Fund do not belong in the realm of science. From the list of 2024 awards, the following belong better in categories of:

History
       -   'Unearthing stories of early Māori ancestry and adaptation in Te Tai Tokerau'  
       -   'Engaging 21st century uri (descendants) with 19th century tūpuna critiques of colonial violence'
       -   'How 18th century poetry influenced settlers' treaty making with indigenous peoples'
       -   'Kia Hauora Anō: the first historical study on the nature and impact of war wounds and disease on Māori veterans of WWII'
       -   'Creating a demographic database of iwi, hapū and kāinga in the 19th century to better understand population change during colonisation'
       -   'The evolution, impact and deployment of Pacific Research Methodologies and their relationship with Indigenous and Māori methodologies'

Philosophy and Politics
       -   'Imagining honourable kawanatanga: preparing for a Tiriti-based future'
       -   'Mā te tāke tika, e mau roa te iwi: with a just tax system, the people are sustained. Researching a Te Tiriti-affirming tax system design'
       -   'The bioethics of use, curation, and repatriation of anatomical skeletons in Aotearoa'
       -   'Combining te ao Māori concepts with contemporary economic methods to build a model of the Aotearoa New Zealand economy that analyses and quantifies intergenerational wellbeing'
       -   'What are the implications of policing climate justice activism?'

Business Management
       -   'Building a database of inter-firm alliances in Aotearoa New Zealand, including alliances between Māori-led and non-Māori firms, and examining how firms navigate multiple outcomes in alliances'

Religion
    -   'What drives the rise of indigenous nonreligion and how does it connect to broader trends? A comparison between Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada.'

Linguistics
        -  'Ngā Kōrero Tawhito: using an archive of recordings of native te reo Māori speakers to assess the evolution of the language'
        -  'Ngā Rōpū Kupu o Te Reo Māori: understanding the parts of speech in Te Reo Māori'
        -   'Examining which syllables are stressed in te reo Māori and why'
        -   'How will a phonetician's work from 100 years ago alter our understanding of the evolution of modern New Zealand English?'

Law
        -   'Death’s impact on privacy, reputation and mana. A comparative exploration of Pākehā law and tikanga Māori'

Journalism
        -   'Me aro ki te hā o Hineahuone: the significant contribution of wāhine from Te Tai Tokerau'
        -   'Centring Pacific girl gamers' voices in understanding how gaming contributes to their wellbeing, identity and relationships'

The above projects cost the taxpayer a total of $14,585,000. They may well be worthwhile enterprises but they have been allowed to take more than $14.5 million away from more robust scientific research. Grant Robertson must have become intoxicated with his own first name in his quest to throw money at racial and other woke ideological causes.

Looking at the list above and other recent lists from the Marsden Fund, one can understand why the Royal Society reacted so horribly and stupidly to the letter by seven highly esteemed professors expressing concern that matauranga Maori was to be included as 'science' at school and indeed was to be given equal status to existing science. The Royal Society, which administers the Marsden Fund, was clearly defensive because for some years now it has been operating on a post-modernist redefinition that sees anything related to Maori able to be called 'science', as 'an alternative way of knowing'.

I would have preferred Collins to specify that only research showing good scientific rigour can be supported by the Marsden Fund. That would rule out all the projects listed above and even some of what looks like 'core science', and would allow funding of important humanities research such as in behavioural science.

A.E. Thompson is a working, tax-paying New Zealander who speaks up about threats to our hard-fought rights, liberties, egalitarian values, rational thinking and fair treatment by the state.