A reader who has a PhD in science writes in:
I’m not sure if you are aware but the issue goes much deeper than just diverting funding from science to “woke” projects for the Marsden fund. For many years, ALL science funding has a proportion that all applicants are mandated to divert to Maori outcomes (Vision Mätauranga). This basically means that any successful science application ends up paying a Maori group a proportion of their funding. Science applications are unlikely to be successful unless this “bribe” is included into the application.
