The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has criticised the four-day workshop process underway at the CSIRO this week, where research portfolios are being asked to compete against each other for survival as another round of staff cuts gets underway.
Over the past 18 months, CSIRO has already shed hundreds of jobs across administration and science support roles. Now, the cuts have reached the core of the organisation – scientists, researchers and their critical research projects.
The workshops will see CSIRO research portfolios present their cases in a process that staff have likened to a ‘Survivor Tribal Council’, forced to argue why their science deserves to continue, while others face the axe.
The CPSU says these cuts are not just an attack on Australia’s world-class scientists and their work, but a direct threat to Australia’s future capacity to innovate, respond to national challenges and maintain its global leadership in science and research.
“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen science support roles cut to the bone. Now, the axe is swinging at the core of CSIRO – scientists, researchers and their projects.
“Now CSIRO’s research leaders have been dragged into a Survivor-style contest and made to pitch for the survival of projects in their research units.
“But this is not reality TV. This is the future of Australian science and innovation.
“When different parts of our publicly funded science institution are forced to battle each other for resources, it’s Australia that loses.
“The government must step in, stop pitting scientists against each other and properly fund the CSIRO so that our world-leading researchers can focus on science, not on fighting for survival.”