Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

CSIRO, our peak research body, with a large presence in Ryan, has just cut another 92 jobs. This is after cutting 800 jobs over the last two years. Many of these latest jobs were crucial roles in climate research, crucial jobs helping continue the development of our climate modelling system, the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator. Roughly a third of climate modelling jobs have been cut. This Labor government likes to talk as though it's a champion of climate action, but moments like this indicate that they just don't get it. Where is the funding for this crucial research? Why are Labor continuing to approve new coal and gas mines? Why did they cut $4 billion from the renewables transition in this latest budget? This goes beyond climate. Does the Australian government, Labor or LNP, have a vision for how our economy prospers into the future, or are we just an unproductive resource economy? Our R&D investment in Australia is miserably low—1.7 per cent of GDP. The OECD average is around 2.7 per cent. Here's a proposal: tax our gas while we can, use a bunch of that money to fund an explosion of R&D and drive an innovative economy that tackles climate change and generates wealth from other sectors, not just resources and property.