David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Australian Government to ensure Australia has a world-class national science agency, because the ongoing cuts to the CSIRO, which have led to the loss of 1,150 jobs, have weakened Australia's ability to diversify our economy and respond to major challenges.

I thank Senators Chandler and Whish-Wilson for their good work on this motion. More than a thousand Canberrans work at the CSIRO and dedicate their lives to science, to research and to the future. It's a workforce that now faces devastating uncertainty as our national science agency is once again forced to make cuts. Up to 350 jobs are on the line, on top of the 800 jobs cut over the past 18 months. It has been pointed out to me that that doesn't include some of the non-ongoing roles which simply haven't been renewed. These aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet; these are people with families. These are minds working at the cutting edge of our environmental monitoring, health, agriculture and nutrition. Five weeks out from Christmas, this is the news that they have been given.

Investment is now lower than it's ever been. Per capita, it's less than half of what it was in the 1980s. It's fallen 87.5 per cent as a percentage of GDP over the same period. Here's what makes the current situation so outrageous: under this Labor government, the CSIRO job losses are now set to surpass even those made by the Abbott government. In 2014, we rightly saw outrage from the then-opposition Labor Party. The member for what is now the electorate of Fenner rose in the other place and gave an impassioned speech about the need to protect the CSIRO. I think Canberrans would welcome a similar speech today. The last Labor government increased investment in innovation, science and research by 50 per cent, from $6.6 billion to $9.9 billion. At the moment, it seems that the Labor government is happy to write billion dollar cheques for manufacturing jobs in Whyalla and Tomago. Why not for our scientists? Why not for the people solving the problems of the future? Whyalla has been provided a joint package of $2.4 billion. We know Tomago's is likely to be billions more.

Let me say this clearly: we need researchers in Canberra just as much as we need steelworkers in Whyalla. This is not a binary choice. It is about national priorities. Right now, those priorities are clearly failing science. Capital budgets at the CSIRO have been neglected for years. Buildings are crumbling, safety risks are rising and now infrastructure costs are cannibalising core funding. They saw the end of their COVID supplement, and they've seen, over the last 3½ years, their funding decline in real terms by seven per cent. The government may say, 'We haven't made any cuts. We've given them the same funding,' but we know they have to find savings in real terms.

I want to read into the Hansard the words of a CSIRO employee who sent me an email after the announcement of cuts: 'Dear Senator Pocock, I'm an employee of CSIRO and have just left a meeting wherein we were told that the majority of upcoming staff cuts will be in the environment portfolio. About 20 per cent of environment staff have just been told we'll soon be unemployed. Merry Christmas to us! My concern is the short-sightedness of this decision. Australia should be massively investing in R&D right now. I'm writing to ask for your help. The people of Australia need to know what is happening to a trusted national institution.'

Yesterday, we learned that the government is planning even more cuts, with the Minister for Finance reported to have written to departments and agencies and flagged a five per cent cut—more uncertainty, less science. To the government, I say this: surely, enough is enough. The uncertainty around funding must end. Our national science agency deserves long-term investment because, once we lose research capability, it's almost impossible to get it back and the challenges of the future, from climate change to artificial intelligence, will not be solved by cutting corners on science. It's time to pull out the cheque book, as you've done for Whyalla and as you'll do for Tomago. It's time to save our CSIRO and actually invest in science so we can be the smart country.