Fifteen DECRA applications and 17 Future Fellowship applications were ruled ineligible in this round because they cited preprints such as arXiv papers.

“If you rip [money] out of physics, that’s bad to begin with. But doing it at the point where we have early career researchers establishing themselves is the worst thing you can do. That’s what we live on, bringing good new people into the system,” said Sven Rogge in an article by The Times Higher Education:
Toll of ARC’s preprints rule revealed. Fears for physics pipeline, as 32 researchers relinquish up to $22m for citing preprints.

On behalf of the Australian physics, astronomy, chemistry and mathematics communities, the AIP, ASA, RACI and AustMS coordinated a letter to the Australian Research Council to protest the ruling.

It’s also been picked up by various media outlets including The Guardian.