Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the impact of the government's budget on an iconic Australian institution of scientific research, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, known as the CSIRO, and, in doing so, highlight a self-evident truth about the Abbott government. That truth is that this is a government that does not want evidence and ignores facts. This is a truth that holds in almost every aspect of the government's policy proposals but nowhere so clearly, or so damagingly, than in its attitude to climate science.

This conservative government has made a political dark art form of ignoring complexity and cherry picking the points, opinions and review panel members that suits it and then disregarding everything else, like scientific research. This is bad news for Australian science, dedicated as it is to finding the best evidence and presenting the facts. Facts change, and we need science to change them, but, even as our planet warms inexorably, this government's ideology will never change, whatever the facts.

The CSIRO is losing $111.4 million over four years. It stands to lose about 700 staff this financial year on top of the 477 lost in the past 12 months—the biggest job cuts in CSIRO's history. The organisation will also be hit by a separate 'efficiency dividend' cut of $3.4 million over the forward estimates. I recently met with representatives from the CSIRO Staff Association in Hobart, who told me of a profound despondency within the organisation stemming from the budget cuts, job cuts and a real fear that Australia's future prospects will be completely undermined as important research is stopped.

Tony Abbott made an election promise to 'provide the long-term, stable policies and vision that our nation's scientists and researchers need to excel in their work', but he declined for the first time since 1931 to appoint a science minister as part of his cabinet. The Prime Minister's Australia is the only OECD country that does not have a contemporary national science, technology or innovation strategy. Government figures show that in 2014 investment in research and development has dropped to its lowest level in 30 years. This government claims it is mainstreaming science when in fact it is ignoring it or, worse, gutting it. The Abbott government says that it is building 'a strong, prosperous economy and a safe, secure Australia.' But, in doing so, it has taken millions upon millions out of scientific, education and research economies while actively attempting to re-prioritise 19th and 20th century technologies like coal. It is crippling the research and development needed to build the future it envisages. Nations with economies in much worse shape than ours are investing more heavily in science than we are, because they recognise that, in the years to come, research and development represents the best hope for a vigorous population and healthy environment as well as a strong and innovative economy.

Scientific advances are our only hope of dealing effectively with climate change today and tomorrow. As Laureate Professor Jon Baurwein has said,

It is sadly ironic that the current government's disavowal of global warming and attacks on related research are certain to substantially increase our medical bills down the road. Diseases will migrate, crop yields will change and so on.

This dismissal of science is an anathema to the Australian Labor Party. Indeed, the Leader of the Opposition has declared that science and innovation is a great Labor cause. We understand science. Labor are committed to making the long-term investments in human capital that will guarantee our future economic success and defend our national environmental security.

A 2012 study found investment in applied research led to 10 times more economic growth than investment in physical capital such as infrastructure. Investment in basic research led to 30 times more growth. And yet this government hacks away at Australia's science infrastructure, from schools to universities, institutions, agencies and organisations. No stone is left unturned when it comes to this government's attempt to absolutely denigrate science and its institutions in this country. All of them are losing their ability to make the breakthroughs we need. This loss is a scientific catastrophe that has prompted Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty to dub the Abbott government 'scientifically illiterate'.

It is widely acknowledged within this parliament that Tasmania has a reputation as an international marine and Antarctic research hub. But I would go further and say that Hobart is, in fact, Australia's scientific capital. Therefore, the Abbott government's cuts to the science and research sector of at least $878 million have the potential to hobble our city, a city I love, along with the rest of the nation. The reason I call it the scientific capital of Australia is that we have had, on average, more scientists in Hobart than in any other capital city per head of population. Tasmanian science funding has been cut by 23 per cent, compared to 13 per cent nationally, and the number of funded scientists in Tasmania will be cut from 260 to 201 by the end of the financial year.

The CSIRO is facing significant budget cuts to marine and atmospheric research, underlined by the decision to fold the Australian Climate Change Science Program into the new National Environmental Science Program, with a funding cut of $21.7 million in the process. The cuts in Tasmania will result in the loss of 31 full-time equivalent CSIRO staff and all of their scientific knowledge. The majority of the research scientists who will be lost are based in Hobart, at the headquarters of the CSIRO's Marine and Atmospheric Research Division.

I imagine it comes as no surprise to anyone in this chamber that this government has put climate science research under the gun. In fact, the Marine and Atmospheric Research Division management has confirmed to the CPSU that reshaping of research delivered by CMAR capability means that there is a need to reduce research capability. Critical climate research streams facing cuts or total abandonment as a result of the decline in funding include atmospheric chemistry and climate, climate modelling, climate variability, climate projections and ocean climate processes.

The Abbott government does not like the facts of climate change, so it is making sure it cannot be given the evidence. The clear-felling of scientific research means that Tasmania will lose its most great minds to foreign countries that are committed to funding science and finding out about the future. Tony Abbott's longest legacy will be his deprivation of Tasmania, and Australia more broadly, of those who are best able to assist us to adapt to the environmental challenges that are before us. And we know that there are many of those environmental challenges, notwithstanding those in climate science and climate research areas.

Labor's legacy, on the other hand, will be to continue to champion the need to fund as much scientific research as possible, to make the necessary and critical investments in our nation's human capital which will be key to the future success of Hobart as a scientific research hub and of Australia—and the CSIRO is and has always been the body to do that through. Why a government would make such drastic cuts, the largest in its history, is beyond me. It certainly makes no sense when we are talking about what is needed for the future of our nation, let alone the future of our planet.