Outrageous amounts of public money are being spent on the most bizarre research topics.

Obscure Ph D topics are nothing new, but some of the current publicly-funded topics being researched are particularly irrelevant.

In particular, Tom Elliott wants to know why taxpayer money is being allocated for looking into:

• Warfare in the ancient Tongan state ($467,997)
• How socially engaged art can catalyse new dialogue between farmers, scientists, environmentalists and policy makers ($340,000)
• Collaboration between Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, neuroscientist Alexander Luria, and cultural psychologist Lev Vygotsky in 1920-1940s Russia ($333,000)

Michael Potter from the Centre for Independent Studies told Tom those topics ‘make a mockery of the word ‘obscure”.

‘It’s not a question of whether they’re interesting, it’s a question of whether your or my money should go into them,’ Mr Potter said.

‘How does it compare to doing research for a cure for cancer?’ 

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