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

I rise today to again call on the Albanese Labor government to properly fund the CSIRO, our national science agency and one of the great engines of Australian ingenuity. It's the CSIRO that gave the world wi-fi, polymer bank notes and Aerogard. More than 1,000 Canberrans work at the CSIRO. It's a vital part of our community and a source of national pride.

But this morning I met with CSIRO staff and heard about the deep toll a decade of cuts has taken, and there are more cuts on the way. Their funding goes off a cliff. Despite already losing 1,000 colleagues, there are another 400 set to go. We're talking about 400 researchers. Research capability, once gone, is incredibly hard to rebuild. CSIRO employees are worried not just for their jobs but for the future of Australian science. Our investment in R&D has slipped to just 1.7 per cent of GDP, well below the OECD average of 2.6 per cent. Per capita investment in the CSIRO has fallen by 87.5 per cent since the 1980s.

This is not setting us up for success, if we're not investing in research and development. We've heard much about Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's book Abundance. This is not an abundance mindset. We need to be investing in the ideas of the future and actually putting money into research, basic and translational, on tackling climate change, medical breakthroughs and the future of AI. They deserve government support, and we need to give them the tools to build the future we need. It's time to fund the CSIRO.