Confirmation today of staff cuts at the Australian Antarctic Division is dreadful news.
Although the promise is of voluntary redundancies, workers would be justifiably rattled by the uncertainty such deep departmental restructuring brings.
Equally alarming is what all this means for Tasmania remaining a centre of excellence for Antarctic exploration and research, and also Tasmania’s prospects for becoming the global gateway to the Frozen South. The bottom line is that AAD should be expanding, not shrinking.
I’ve conveyed my concerns directly to the Department tonight in the strongest possible terms.
This was a big early test for the new Liberal State Government and it failed. The new Premier should have used all the leverage at his disposal with the Liberal Federal Government to save these jobs and he didn’t.
For the next four years we can only hope the Tasmanian government tries a whole lot harder next time the State’s workers, intellectual capital, economic prospects and very reputation is put to the blowtorch in Canberra.”
Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie
