Up to 350 jobs to go from scientific research organisation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Melissa Donnelly is the National Secretary at the Community Public Sector Union which represents staff at the CSIRO. She says the job losses will have a big impact.

Transcript

00:00We're talking about very significant cuts to the CSIRO and that's going to have really

00:06significant implications for the future of our key scientific agency and its capacity

00:13moving forward. This announcement today of 300 job cuts comes on the back of over 800

00:18that have already been cut and to be honest this represents worse cuts than we saw under

00:23the Abbott government. What about the Minister Tim Eyre's statement on this today saying

00:28the CSIRO will be exiting or scaling back on research in areas where work is being undertaken

00:33by other parts of the R&D system and building the foundation for strengthening and focusing

00:38effort in areas of national industrial science priority, kind of describing it as a bit of

00:44a repositioning. Look, when you have over a thousand jobs going from an institution like

00:49the CSIRO, this is not just a restructure or reprioritisation. These are very significant

00:55cuts and it's going to have impact on our capacity moving forward, which has implications

01:00for farmers, for our future scientific capacity, for innovation in a whole range of areas. These

01:07are really significant cuts. We've already seen cuts in biosecurity, in health, in food,

01:12in agriculture, in digital research and now we're going to see more and that is going to

01:17have implications. This is not just a restructure.

01:19And as you understand it, are they all research jobs going or a mix of jobs?

01:26Well, we've already seen 400 jobs go in science support areas. What we've seen most recently,

01:33including with this announcement and what has happened over the last few months,

01:36is the cuts really digging deep into key research areas, whether that's health and biosecurity,

01:42whether it's digital work, whether it's food and agriculture,

01:47they are scientific jobs that it will be going. And even the support jobs that went earlier in

01:52this process have implications for the work of our scientists because they, as the name suggests,

01:58support the work of our scientists and their scientific endeavours.

02:02The Albanese government over the years has talked up the importance of science being central to

02:08Australia's capacity to deal with the challenges facing the world. Is its rhetoric being backed up by

02:14adequate funding for the sector or not?

02:18Oh, absolutely. The announcement today demonstrates that there is not adequate funding for the CSIRO.

02:23These job cuts are a result of inadequate funding for our key scientific institution,

02:30and it's going to have long-term implications. We can talk about productivity,

02:34we can talk about driving innovation as a nation, but the CSIRO has to be part of that equation.

02:40It is a world-leading scientific institution, and the Albanese government should be backing it.

02:46What has happened with funding to the CSIRO over the years,

02:50and to what extent does it have to be increased in the coming years?

02:55Well, there's a couple of things that have happened with CSIRO funding. It hasn't kept up

02:59in real terms with the needs of the organisation, and there is significant capital expenditure as well

03:07that's required in the CSIRO. Either way, it is up to the government to deliver the funding for the CSIRO,

03:14and what we have with today's announcements is hundreds of more public sector scientists

03:20who have dedicated their life to this work, uncertain if they have a job going into the Christmas season.

03:25of course, we have an actual recommendations, of course.

03:28This is a very important one, and this is a vitalCEСm is a forsaken,

03:28and this is a fundamental question, and as important as well as the CSIRO,

03:30we've had a lot of other systems in the CSIROK,

03:34and the CSIROK down to the CSIRO.

03:35We've had a lot of life for the new CSIRO.

03:36It was a great deal.

03:37We've had a lot of conversations with CSIRO.

03:39We've been doing this too many things.

03:40We've had a very long time-term of CSIRO.

03:40We've had a lot of the new CSIROK.

03:42where we've had a lot ofları process, and we move around here.

03:43We've had a lot of the same questions,

03:45and we may have a lot of other people in our CSIROK.

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