The decision by the CSIRO to cut 13 Hobart-based staff is dreadful news. People losing their job is terrible at any time and my heart goes out to those in the firing line. I can only hope that all of the jobs to go will be on a voluntary redundancy basis.
The CSIRO situation is all the worse because this is another symptom of a concerted attack by the Federal Government on the science and research community, as evidenced by the recent cut of $2.8bn from the universities which is expected to result in the loss of more than $10m and 100 jobs at UTas.
Today’s CSIRO news is an ominous sign for other Tasmanian scientific and research bodies, and in particular the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre at UTas, both of which do outstanding work but are facing funding uncertainty.
It will not be good enough for the Government to claim these are matters for CSIRO and the other science and research bodies, because the simple fact of the matter is that jobs only go when funding is cut in one way or another.
