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.

David Farrar: They only have themselves to blame

There have been howls of outrage from the usual suspects over the decision of the Government to require what used to be NZ’s premier science fund to focus on, ummm, science.