Ding dong the witch is dead!' the demise of the research quality framework

On Friday the 21st of December last year Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science, and Research, announced that the Rudd Government would cease implementation of the Research Quality Framework (RQF) previously introduced by the former Howard Government. I cannot claim in any way to be disappointed by this news, to me it meant the end of a cumbersome and time-consuming process that in my experience tended to divert the attention of academics away from the inherent value of the research they were conducting and directing it towards the fulfilment of the requirements of the RQF itself.