Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a report from the Economics Reference Committee into the funding and resourcing for the CSIRO. There was a boost in the budget—a one-off boost for the CSIRO which I'm sure is very welcome for the scientists of CSIRO, but it is a long way short of what this significant Australian institution needs, and it is not going stop, we have heard, with a cut of 350 full-time roles in this very significant body. This cut, which is going to go ahead despite that extra money, includes up to 150 positions in the environment research unit at a time when around our country we know the environment crisis is increasing daily in significance and in impact, and we need every piece of science we can find to deal with that issue. What we have instead is the cutting of 150 positions in that important research unit.

It's a budget that similarly cut $4 billion from the climate transition and allocated $46 billion to fossil fuel subsidies. This is spending that is going in the wrong direction for environmental protection and climate action. At the same time, it is failing to invest in our scientists. These are priorities that Labor has got all wrong. I take note of other reports that I will come to at the end of my comments.

CSIRO has been responsible in our country, over many decades, for such important research. Its funding has declined from 0.16 per cent of GDP in 1978-79 to just 0.03 per cent in 2024-25. It's now worth approximately 193 million in real dollars, which represents a decline of over 17 per cent in 46 years. Under Labor, the funding for CSIRO has only got worse in real terms. We have had—as reports made to the inquiry and our comments on its outcomes show—a systematic erosion of our scientific capability, chronic underinvestment and the loss of more than 800 jobs, with now another 350 full-time-equivalent roles to go.

I know a lot of young scientists. They are passionate about their work. They don't chase dollars in big corporations. They are giving their time—their working lives—to researching the problems that they know are critical to the survival and health of our nation. We don't give them big salaries. We don't give them long careers. In fact, in many cases, they go from a six-month contract to a one-month contract after spending decades of their lives getting their qualifications. They put themselves through the torture of a PhD—torture I've personally shared. It's not easily done.

They give an enormous amount, building the knowledge and working in incredible teams, to approach problems which we know are very, very serious for our country, including climate change and the changes in agriculture and production that we need for a future that's sustainable. There are so many issues that they are at the cutting edge of.

Where are the scientists that will be available to assist us in dealing with the challenges of AI that are coming so fast down the pipe towards us? We have so little research about what AI will do to the practice of science, to the careers of scientists and to the critical questions that are facing our country. If you read the enormous amount of information that's coming out about the ways in which AI is going to transform our societies and significantly change the labour market, it is a terrifying prospect. We are seeing the concentration of power in a small number of very large 'big bro' companies who are controlling the science and controlling the way it's used.

We need to see a properly funded scientific capability in this country to deal with these problems. What we have at present is a CSIRO that is limping from one-off fixes inadequate to the decline in real resources. It is a really shameful way to treat these hardworking, passionate scientists who give their lives to this work and want to see the solutions. We need to face up to these challenges and to fund our science.

Instead, what we're doing is forcing our scientists to act like fake consultants. They have to go out and generate short projects that bring in a bit of cash and that meet a short-term consulting kind of issue and not the basic science questions that are challenging so many important parts of our society and our economy. Turning our CSIRO scientists into consultants is just a shocking waste of their capabilities. They have to chase money month to month to sustain life-saving and important research that is critical to our ongoing health.

Shame on Labor for not indexing their funding and properly pitching their funding and relating it to GDP in an ongoing way. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.