Cuts to CSIRO jobs and research are attracting public attention and generating media coverage. This page lists recent stories and will be updated regularly.
To view media stories relating to enterprise services job cuts in 2024, click here.
CSIRO research threatened by historically low government funding – Australia’s national science agency has hit historically low levels of government funding. That’s according to new analysis from the parliamentary library — commissioned by independent Senator David Pocock. The CSIRO admits funding isn’t keeping up with the cost of vital scientific research, as departments are asked to consolidate research activity and reduce headcount… ABC RN Breakfast 15 October 2025 (audio only)
Albanese urged to ‘secure the future of science’ as CSIRO reckons with ongoing decline in funding – The CSIRO will embark on further cost-cutting to research units in a bid to repair a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, as Australia’s national science and research agency reckons with an ongoing decline in funding. The institution’s annual funding level as a percentage of GDP has been falling with few exceptions over recent decades and is now at its lowest since 1978, a parliamentary library analysis commissioned by ACT senator David Pocock showed… Guardian Australia, 14 October 2025 (link, text below)
CSIRO Data61 research cuts – Interview with CSIRO Staff Association’s Susan Tonks, covering ongoing concern that further CSIRO job and research cuts are on the way… ABC TV news, 10 November 2025 (video only, embedded below).
The mood is ominous at CSIRO as jobs disappear ‘by stealth’ and staff are wondering who’s next – The mood in parts of Australia’s national scientific agency is low after a mystery number of AI, robotics and data researchers were quietly let go within the last year. Since CSIRO announced it was “reshaping its research portfolio” to deal with an imminent funding cliff in 2024, speculation about whose jobs are on the line has spread like wildfire… Guardian Australia, 10 October 2025 (link, text below).
CSIRO scientists pitching for their careers in Survivor-style Science Cuts – The 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… CPSU media release, 1 September 2025 (link, text below).
The tribe has spoken: CSIRO workshops likened to Survivor councils deciding which jobs will be ‘exited’ – The nation’s leading science and research agency is this week undertaking a four-day workshop aimed at deciding the future direction of its portfolios and staffing levels. CSIRO has confirmed that research will be “exited” as part of the organisation’s “reshaping…” Region Canberra, 2 September 2025 (link, text below).
‘Survivor-style’ job cut fears at peak science body – Scientists at Australia’s peak research body are involved in a “Survivor-like” contest to keep their jobs, according to a union that fears core roles will be cut. The CSIRO is this week undertaking a four-day workshop involving 300 of its most senior scientists to clarify the shape of its future research programs… AAP, 3 September 2025 (link, text below).
CSIRO faces deep cuts as Govt spruiks productivity agenda – The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has warned that an ongoing agenda of aggressive cuts at the CSIRO is putting Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity at risk… CPSU media release, 7 August 2025 (link, text below).
CSIRO research cuts – There are fears hundreds of jobs could be cut from the CSIRO this year in another blow for staff still coming to terms with positions being slashed last year… ABC TV news (link, video below).
Survey shows CSIRO job cuts shake staff confidence in leaders – Confidence in senior leadership and their management of change is flagging at Australia’s key scientific research agency, after hundreds of job cuts and concerns about more to come… Canberra Times, 11 August 2025 (link, text below).
CSIRO could be facing hundreds more job cuts this year, union warns – There are fears hundreds more Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) jobs could be axed this year, the union has warned. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) issued a statement on Thursday morning saying that Australia’s national science agency was enduring its biggest job cuts in a decade… ABC Online, 7 August 2025 (link, text below).
Hundreds more CSIRO jobs on the chopping block as experts raise fears over impact on science – Hundreds more jobs could be axed at Australia’s national science agency, sparking concerns the country is gutting its research capability just as the Trump administration makes deep cuts into the sector in the US… Guardian Australia, 7 August 2025 (link, text below)
Union accuses government of ‘sitting on its hands’ during CSIRO job cuts – The main public sector union has warned the Albanese government that job cuts at its key science agency will undermine Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity, ahead of the economic roundtable… Canberra Times, 7 August 2025 (link, text below).
CSIRO researchers brace for hundreds of job cuts – The national science agency has confirmed it is “reshaping” its research portfolio to do “fewer things, better”, after the staff union warned hundreds of job will be cut later this year… InnovationAUS, 7 August 2025 (link, text below).
Interview with Susan Tonks – The Community and Public Sector Union says staff at the CSIRO are worried that more job cuts are going to be announced. The union is calling on the federal government to intervene to cuts. Susan Tonks is the secretary of the CSIRO Staff Association and joins me… ABC Tasmania Statewide Drive, 7 August 2025 (link to audio only, transcript below).
New $90 million research facility opens at CSIRO to house specimens collected over 150 years – Millions of irreplaceable biodiversity specimens have been re-homed at a new CSIRO facility that the agency says will support research to better understand and manage Australia’s natural environment… While there was celebration at the opening of the building, concern remains about the potential of job cuts at the agency, with the Community and Public Sector Union warning that hundreds of jobs could be axed this year… ABC Online, 14 August 2025 (link, text below).
This is a huge risk to our young people. I am a bit puzzled about the government’s priorities – CSIRO is on the verge of an extraordinary breakthrough, developing an algorithm that can block images from being used to create deepfakes… But there are fears CSIRO may cut another 400 research positions in this financial year… Jenna Price for The Canberra Times, 13 August 2025 (link, text below)
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Guardian Australia, 14 October 2025
The CSIRO will embark on further cost-cutting to research units in a bid to repair a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, as Australia’s national science and research agency reckons with an ongoing decline in funding.
The institution’s annual funding level as a percentage of GDP has been falling with few exceptions over recent decades and is now at its lowest since 1978, a parliamentary library analysis commissioned by ACT senator David Pocock showed. Pocock requested data from 1980 in the analysis.
The analysis, which used GDP, CPI and population data to adjust for real figures, showed the CSIRO’s funding has dropped from 0.16% of GDP in 1978-79 to just 0.03% of GDP in 2024-25.
Under the Albanese government, the funding as a percentage of GDP has continued to decline after it briefly rose to 0.05% in 2020-21 as a result of a Covid-19 funding injection by the then Morrison government.
While the nominal funding figures have remained relatively steady, the adjusted figures represent real cuts to the agency over a nearly five-decade period.
Pocock said the CSIRO’s “value to our nation’s productivity, innovation and overall wellbeing cannot be overstated”.
“Successive governments need to stop asking it to do more with less and start once again investing in the kind of research that made us the lucky country back when the CSIRO was first established,” he said.
At a Senate estimates hearing on Friday, the CSIRO chief executive, Doug Hilton, acknowledged the agency’s budget allocation “has not kept up with the cost of doing science”.
Hilton said the CSIRO had to refit ageing buildings to “maintain safe, fit-for-purpose and, where appropriate and possible, cutting edge facilities”.
“We do have some challenging sustainability issues as an organisation,” he said.
The CSIRO’s funding cliff became apparent in recent years after the expiration of $454m provided in the October 2020 budget.
The agency’s budget statement in March showed there would be a $91m reduction in employee expenses for 2025-26 compared with the previous year.
The agency is undergoing a restructure in both research and non-research areas to fix its budget, which has so far led to a 12.7% headcount reduction since July 2024.
The CSIRO chief finance officer, Tom Munyard, told Senate estimates this amounted to about 818 jobs, with further job cuts expected to be revealed over the course of this financial year.
At a four-day workshop in Melbourne in September, research unit leaders met with management to determine where the CSIRO could “consolidate and focus” its research.
“Although we don’t know the details yet, I want to be clear: we will need to exit some research and do fewer things better, more deeply and more impactfully,” Hilton said in an email before the meeting.
The science minister, Tim Ayres, disputed Pocock’s suggestion that the CSIRO’s funding had fallen under Labor but acknowledged the difference between nominal and real funding.
Ayres told Senate estimates the government had given the CSIRO a “significant contribution” but he expected the institution to make sure it was “on a sustainable budget footing”.
“I also want to make sure, as the minister responsible for science in the commonwealth government, that CSIRO is continuing to evolve its approach to making sure that its programs of effort are in line with the national science priorities of the country and what the country needs in order to solve the big national challenges in front of us,” he said.
The main public sector union, the Community and Public Sector Union, said the government should be “backing the CSIRO to be taking risks and tackling challenges, not forcing them to be penny pinchers”.
“But funding shortfalls are forcing hundreds of scientists and their research out the door. We’ve already seen more than 700 jobs cut from CSIRO, and hundreds more are expected to go,” Susan Tonks, the CPSU’s CSIRO spokesperson, said.
“If we are going to be able to tackle the challenges of tomorrow, we need publicly funded science and scientists to feel empowered and supported. But right now, staff at the CSIRO are looking over their shoulders wondering if it is their job that’s next to go.
“The Albanese government needs to step in and secure the future of science in this country.”
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Guardian Australia, 10 October 2025
The mood in parts of Australia’s national scientific agency is low after a mystery number of AI, robotics and data researchers were quietly let go within the last year.
Since the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation announced it was “reshaping its research portfolio” to deal with an imminent funding cliff in 2024, speculation about whose jobs are on the line has spread like wildfire.
Hundreds of roles in the health and biosecurity teams, including roles like finance, business and legal that support them, have already been cut. Within the agriculture and food research unit, hundreds more jobs hang in the balance.
Despite being spruiked as a key area of investment for Australia, the science agency’s data research unit – responsible for advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing – is the next to be put under the microscope.
Data research roles ‘cut by stealth’
The staff at Data61, the artificial intelligence and data innovation unit, have already seen about 100 of their colleagues leave in the last year, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.
CSIRO’s chief executive, Doug Hilton, told a Senate estimates hearings last year no job cuts were planned for the data research team, and there would be no additional cuts to research capacity in 2024-25
But the union says more than 100 full-time research roles on two or three-year contracts were not renewed, nor replaced, in the last year.
The job losses represent about 20% of the research unit’s total workforce.
The union’s CSIRO spokesperson, Susan Tonks, said management had “deliberately and systematically” chopped the roles behind closed doors to avoid scrutiny.
In September this year, CSIRO said Data61 now had too many administrative staff given the reduced number of research staff. It meant some of those roles would need to be “reduced”.
“These cuts by stealth, made without transparency and with the union shut out of the process, are now being used to justify even more job losses,” Tonks said.
Guardian Australia asked CSIRO a series of questions, including how many contract positions it had discontinued in the last financial year.
“CSIRO is reshaping its research portfolio to ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future,” a spokesperson said.
“This will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our Enterprise Agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made.
“In addition, CSIRO research units, including Data61, routinely conduct workforce planning which may result in small-scale changes.”
Data61 morale ‘from light to dark on a whim’
One researcher within Data61, not authorised to speak publicly, said the past 18 months had been their most uncertain at the science agency.
After plans to “reshape” the agency were announced to staff, the long-serving Data61 researcher recalled staff assuming that meant some colleagues would have to be made redundant.
“It went like from light to dark on a whim,” they said.
CSIRO’s funding cliff had been on the horizon but in early 2024, reality hit.
The agency’s chief operating officer, Tom Munyard, explained in November 2024 $454m had been provided in the October 2020 budget. It was due to end in 2023-24.
The 2024 federal budget papers showed CSIRO would receive $916.5m for 2024-25, a $92m decrease from the previous year’s $1bn.
As a result, CSIRO looked to make savings in all areas, including reducing its property portfolio and limiting staff travel.
But between 375 and 500 support roles – including administration, finance and legal – were identified to be cut.
Another Data61 researcher said a number of contracted researchers were not offered permanent roles when their multi-year contracts expired.
In the years since the pandemic, CSIRO launched a recruitment campaign to attract “Australia’s next generation of inventors, innovators and change makers”.
The “impossible without you” campaign offered contract roles to postdoctoral researchers for between two and three years.
Few, if any, have been offered permanent positions with contracts beginning to expire, they said.
The ‘right time’ to re-evaluate?
Hilton invited research units to a four-day workshop in Melbourne in September to help management determine where it could “consolidate and focus” its research.
Those six areas of significance, Hilton said, were energy and minerals; food and fibre; nature; one health; tech economy and from wonder to discovery.
“Although we don’t know the details yet, I want to be clear: we will need to exit some research and do fewer things better, more deeply and more impactfully,” Hilton said in his invitation email.
But the researchers Guardian Australia spoke to say they felt unsure.
“I’m just generally not very convinced by the narrative that there’s a core master plan going,” one said.
“I can tell you what happens on the ground, and that is that we’re still a very skunkworks-heavy organisation.”
The independent ACT senator, David Pocock, said it wasn’t surprising CSIRO had to undergo cost-cutting exercises across the board due to budgetary constraints and the increasing cost of staff, research, IT and cybersecurity.
“The blame needs to sit at the feet of successive governments who have underfunded research, and the Albanese government who have known about the funding cliff CSIRO faces yet have not provided more funding,” he said.
The science minister, Tim Ayres, said staffing and prioritisation of resources were a matter for CSIRO, and that he respected their independence and work.
“This is the right time for CSIRO to be making sure that its activities are focused directly on Australia’s national industrial and strategic research priorities,” he said.
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CPSU media release, 1 September 2025.
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.
Quotes attributable to Susan Tonks, CPSU CSIRO Section Secretary:
“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.”
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Region Canberra, 2 September 2025.
The nation’s leading science and research agency is this week undertaking a four-day workshop aimed at deciding the future direction of its portfolios and staffing levels.
It has confirmed that research will be “exited” as part of the organisation’s “reshaping”.
However, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has rejected suggestions from the workforce that the meetings are trying to pit sections of the agency against each other in a fight for survival.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has criticised the workshop process currently underway at the CSIRO as a blunt way of getting research portfolios to compete against each other in the face of another round of staffing cuts.
Susan Tonks, the union’s secretary for CSIRO matters, likened the workshops to popular reality television series Survivor, in which contestants try to outsmart and outlast each other in order to stay in the game.
“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen science support roles cut to the bone,” she said.
“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.”
CSIRO lost 440 jobs in the last financial year, but more are slated to go as the agency talks about “reshaping” the organisation.
According to staff involved in the workshops, research portfolio leaders are having to present their cases and argue why their science deserves to continue over others.
The CPSU says the tactic is little more than a ‘Survivor Tribal Council’ to decide which research and jobs will be extinguished.
The union says the process poses a “direct threat” to Australia’s future capacity to innovate, respond to national challenges and maintain its global leadership in science and research.
A CSIRO spokesperson stated that the workshops had nothing to do with research areas competing for survival, but confirmed that the agency was undergoing a period of change.
Some research will be cut – or as CSIRO put it, “exited” – in that process.
“CSIRO is reshaping its research portfolio to ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future,” the spokesperson said.
“To achieve this, we must retain the distinct advantages we have as Australia’s national science agency, but we also need to become simpler and sustainable.
“The cost of running a modern science agency has rapidly increased over several years and our funding hasn’t kept pace.
“We must adapt to this challenge, ensuring we use the funding entrusted to us by the community in the best way for the community.
“We will need to evolve, becoming sharper in our focus, doing fewer things – including exiting some research – better and at scale.
“The workshop we are holding this week is an important step to inform these decisions.
“We’re bringing together research leaders and external advisors to collectively consider our research portfolio to make sure we are set up to tackle the challenges Australia faces.
“ We’ll also draw on a range of other relevant inputs to inform the shape of our research portfolio.
“The workshop is not about research areas competing against each other.
“Any proposed changes will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our enterprise agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made.”
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AAP, 3 September 2025
Scientists at Australia’s peak research body are involved in a “Survivor-like” contest to keep their jobs, according to a union that fears core roles will be cut.
The CSIRO is this week undertaking a four-day workshop involving 300 of its most senior scientists to clarify the shape of its future research programs.
Chief executive Doug Hilton says the CSIRO is facing challenging financial sustainability issues and its government funding had not kept up with inflation or the cost of doing science.
In an email to staff, Dr Hilton said the CSIRO needed to “exit some research and do fewer things better, more deeply and more impactfully”.
CPSU CSIRO section secretary Susan Tonks said research leaders had been “dragged into a reality television Survivor-style contest” and made to pitch for the survival of their projects.
“That’s the sentiment that has been relayed back to us. These scientists deserve so much better than that,” she said.
May federal budget papers showed an expected 450-person reduction in CSIRO staff in the 2025/26 financial year, from a total 5945 employees in 2024/25.
More than 400 positions were cut last financial year and some 200 contracts left to expire.
“We don’t yet have a clear idea of what our financial position will be in 2026/27,” Dr Hilton told ABC radio.
“As that becomes clear we can make decisions about the size of the organisation we are capable of sustaining.”
In the staff email, Dr Hilton said the CSIRO wanted to sharpen its focus on six key areas: energy and minerals, food and fibre, nature, health, tech economy and “from wonder to discovery”.
The CSIRO faces growing costs and had underinvested in infrastructure and technology to the point where “many of our staff are working in facilities that are at end-of-life and using scientific equipment that is out-dated”, the email said.
The CSIRO also wants to “reimagine” itself with fewer sites across Australia, but ones that are modern and better equipped.
Ms Tonks said no timeline had been provided around the outcome of this week’s workshop.
“We’ve already seen deep cuts across CSIRO in the last 18 months,” she said.
“The axe is swinging toward the core of what CSIRO does. It’s a real concern.”
A CSIRO spokeswoman said any decisions would be made in line with policy and the organisation’s enterprise agreement, including a commitment to consult with staff.
The federal government, which has been contacted for comment, committed $1 billion to the CSIRO for FY 2025/26.
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CPSU media release, 7 August 2025
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has warned that an ongoing agenda of aggressive cuts at the CSIRO is putting Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity at risk.
Under the leadership of Doug Hilton, the CSIRO is enduring the organisations biggest job cuts in a decade. More than 440 staff have already been cut and approximately 200 contract jobs were left to expire, with hundreds more cuts expected to be made to research units later this year.
These cuts come at a time when Australia’s investment in research and development is already low by international standards.
In a submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable, the union has warned that Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity is being actively undermined by aggressive job cuts and underinvestment in the public institution that powers research, science and economic growth.
Public investment in R&D is often what delivers innovation that lays the groundwork for commercial breakthroughs and increased productivity. The CSIRO has been responsible for some of the most important scientific innovations in Australia’s history, including the invention of Wi-Fi, plastic bank notes and aerogard.
The CPSU is calling on the federal government to step in, stop the cuts and commit to the long-term stability of Australia’s national science agency.
Quotes attributable to Susan Tonks, CSIRO Staff Association Section Secretary:
“The work of the CSIRO is essential to lifting national productivity and driving economic growth.
“Unfortunately, there’s a clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it.
“Publicly funded research and development is where some of the biggest gains in productivity have come from.
“But deep job cuts at the CSIRO are directly undermining Australia’s ability to innovate, compete and grow. And this will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation.
“If this government is serious about productivity, it must step in, stop the cuts, and back our country’s peak science institution.”
CPSU Submission excerpt:
The CSIRO has long been a world-leading public research institution and properly resourcing it is critical to Australia’s research and development capacity and, by extension, our national productivity. However, recent significant job cuts are undermining the capacity of the CSIRO, including in critical areas like agriculture, health, and digital technology.
CSIRO’s unique role in providing long-term, independent research – often in areas where the private sector has little incentive to invest – supports innovation across the economy. If Australia is serious about lifting productivity investing in world-leading R&D the Commonwealth must properly fund the CSIRO.
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Canberra Times, 11 August 2025
Confidence in senior leadership and their management of change is flagging at Australia’s key scientific research agency, after hundreds of job cuts and concerns about more to come.
Staff survey results for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) show only 36 per cent of staff believe the senior executives are communicating a motivational vision for the agency.
The survey of 4294 staff, conducted between May 6 and May 20, 2025, also showed that just one-third of staff thought senior leaders consistently delivered on their accountabilities for CSIRO’s performance.
The message from staff comes about a year after senior leadership announced up to 500 jobs could be cut in response to budgetary pressures.
About 440 positions have been axed to date, the main public sector union says, largely from the agency’s enterprise services division, which includes jobs in IT, HR, communications, business development, facilities management and finance.
Susan Tonks, the Community and Public Sector Union representative for the CSIRO staff association, said survey results had been trending “in the wrong direction” since 2024.
“It indicates that there’s something really wrong there in how it’s all being communicated, and people understanding where it’s going or the direction coming from senior leaders,” Ms Tonks said.
The report, prepared for CSIRO by private firm Culture Amp, noted that job security and morale were key concerns for staff who provided written feedback.
“Employee comments show concerns regarding leadership accountability, a perceived lack of transparency in decision-making processes, and the negative impact of recent restructuring initiatives on staff morale and job security,” the summary reads.
“Many comments highlight excessive workloads, bureaucratic processes, and a perceived lack of support for collaboration across teams and units.
“Recurring themes include concerns about inconsistent application of policies, inadequate performance management, and a desire for improved communication.”
Staff’s understanding of CSIRO’s strategic direction has also been falling since 2024, with a little more than half of respondents saying they understood the agency’s strategic priorities (53 per cent).
The report identifies “meaningful declines” in attitudes to change management between 2022 and 2024, with only 29 per cent of staff confident the agency has the systems and processes to effectively manage change in 2025.
There were 36 per cent who said CSIRO had the culture and mindsets to effectively adapt to changes.
Other measures showed a more positive picture of the agency, with 86 per cent of staff considering it a safe place to work and 71 per cent recommending it as a great place to work.
CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton told staff the agency had listened to them on “both the strengths and the areas that need greater attention”.
“Your voice through this survey is part of how we listen and learn, and we are committed to acting on what you have shared,” his foreword on the report reads.
While job cuts have been targeted mostly at the enterprise services division, Ms Tonks said there was a general anxiety in the agency that more cuts would need to be made.
The union has shifted its attention from senior leadership to the Albanese government, calling for more resources for the agency.
“If the government’s serious about lifting productivity, they need to commit to the long-term stability of CSIRO,” Ms Tonks said.
“It’s our national science agency, it’s the very institution that actually does lift productivity.”
In a statement last week on the job cuts, CSIRO said it was “reshaping its research portfolio” to refine its focus.
“As we continue to evolve our portfolio, we will undertake workforce planning to ensure we have the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
“This will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our enterprise agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made.”
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ABC Online, 7 August 2025
There are fears hundreds more Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) jobs could be axed this year, the union has warned.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) issued a statement on Thursday morning saying that Australia’s national science agency was enduring its “biggest job cuts in a decade”.
Last year, 440 positions were slashed, and the CPSU said “approximately 200 contract jobs were left to expire, with hundreds more cuts expected to be made to research units later this year”.
The budget papers for this financial year suggest average staff levels at the organisation would be cut by 450.
The union said it had made a submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable, warning the nation’s capacity for productivity and innovation was being “actively undermined”.
The union is calling for the federal government to intervene to prevent further proposed cuts.
CSIRO Staff Association section secretary Susan Tonks said there was a “clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it”.
“Publicly funded research and development is where some of the biggest gains in productivity have come from,” Ms Tonks said.
“But deep job cuts at the CSIRO are directly undermining Australia’s ability to innovate, compete and grow. And this will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation.
“If this government is serious about productivity, it must step in, stop the cuts, and back our country’s peak science institution.”
In a statement, the CSIRO said it was “reshaping its research portfolio to ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future”.
“To achieve this, we must retain the distinct advantages we have as Australia’s national science agency. But we will also need to evolve, becoming sharper in our focus, doing fewer things, better and at scale.”
The spokesperson said they would be undertaking “workforce planning to ensure we have the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities”.
“This will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our enterprise agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made,” they said.
The organisation said its 2025-26 budget papers showed a decrease in the average staffing level, which in part “reflects the reduction of our enterprise services (non-research) staff as a restructure in that area of the organisation — commenced last financial year — nears completion”.
‘Similar numbers’ could be cut to last year: union
Ms Tonks said concern among staff was high.
“If you’re looking at the May budget papers and the workshops … there’s workshops coming up to assess what science will be done, and what research will continue in September,” she said.
“And looking at all the numbers and everything that’s coming up, it’s looking highly likely that there will be similar numbers [to last year’s cuts] coming across the research portfolio.
“There’s still assessments to be done, but given what we’ve just come out of, the anxiety and the concern and anger from staff is high.”
She said it was “hard to say” which areas within the CSIRO would be targeted.
“But I think everything’s going to be looked at,” she said.
“Looking at recent conversations with staff in preparation for some of those that are going to go through, there’s quotes like, ‘We need to be simpler as an organisation, we need to exit some areas and do fewer things better.'”
She said it was “unsettling” for staff who had already been through recent changes, and warned some might not remain at the CSIRO if uncertainty lingered.
“It’s worth noting, public investment in research and development is what delivers innovation, it increases productivity,” Ms Tonks said.
“The CSIRO’s been behind some of the most important scientific innovations that we’ve had in Australia.
“We need to make sure that we back it.”
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Guardian Australia, 7 August 2025
Hundreds more jobs could be axed at Australia’s national science agency, sparking concerns the country is gutting its research capability just as the Trump administration makes deep cuts into the sector in the US.
The latest potential research job losses at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) follow 440 positions being cut last financial year and earlier deep reductions under the Coalition government, including 300 in 2016.
They coincide with the Trump administration slashing science agencies in the US, with warnings the loss of expertise could have global ramifications in health, climate science and weather forecasting.
The Community and Public Sector Union said the Australian cuts were at odds with the Albanese government’s promise to prioritise economic productivity and urged the government to instead increase investment in the CSIRO.
Susan Tonks, the union’s CSIRO spokesperson, said: “There’s a clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it.”
A CSIRO spokesperson confirmed the agency was “reshaping its research portfolio” with a goal of making it more financially sustainable, but did not indicate how many jobs might be lost. They said the changes were in part due to the end of Covid-19 “safety net” funding and other government savings measures, and would “ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future”.
David Karoly, a University of Melbourne emeritus professor who previously worked at CSIRO, said the cuts were not being offset elsewhere. He said Australia had lower levels of industry funding in research than comparable countries.
“There’s a dilemma as to whether Australia wants to support the research infrastructure that’s needed to support ongoing research activities in science,” he said. “The simple answer is Australia doesn’t appear to want to do that.”
The latest cuts were understood to primarily affect the CSIRO’s agriculture and food research unit, with reductions in health and safety, IT and business development. Research unit staff were expected to be informed about funding and staffing changes by October.
The May federal budget papers showed an expected 450-person reduction in CSIRO staff, from 5,945 in 2024-25 to 5,495 this financial year.
The union said the cuts were the worst since 2014, when the Abbott government oversaw an estimated 20% reduction in staff.
Tonks said the agency’s staff were experiencing “deep anxiety” over the CSIRO’s strategic direction and the cuts were “directly undermining Australia’s ability to innovate, compete and grow”.
“This will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation,” she said. “If this government is serious about productivity, it must step in, stop the cuts, and back our country’s peak science institution.”
The CSIRO also confirmed it would sell its stake in the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre, in Perth’s northern suburbs, by the end of 2025. The agency said it was a “small partner”, owning about 15% of the Watermans Bay site.
A spokesperson said the agency remained “committed to the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre partnership”.
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Canberra Times, 7 August 2025
The main public sector union has warned the Albanese government that job cuts at its key science agency will undermine Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity, ahead of the economic roundtable.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) flagged it would look at job cuts in April 2024, citing “a need to simplify” in order to support the delivery of research.
CSIRO chief executive officer Doug Hilton later told staff the agency needed to reduce costs across its enterprise services division by 25 per cent, or at least $100 million.
The division comprises jobs in corporate functions such as IT, HR, communications, business development, facilities management and finance.
In a submission to the Economic Reform Roundtable, the Community and Public Sector Union hit out at agency leadership for axing 440 staff and allowing about 200 contract jobs to expire.
The union wants the government to intervene and stop the restructure within the agency.
“The work of the CSIRO is essential to lifting national productivity and driving economic growth,” CSIRO staff association section secretary Susan Tonks said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, there’s a clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it.”
Ms Tonks said despite publicly funded research and development driving productivity, the job cuts “are directly undermining Australia’s ability to innovate, compete and grow”.
“This will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation.”
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InnovationAUS, 7 August 2025
The national science agency has confirmed it is “reshaping” its research portfolio to do “fewer things, better”, after the staff union warned hundreds of job will be cut later this year.
The looming job losses come despite a $45 million research resourcing boost this year and follow a brief stay on cuts to research roles last year, when the CSIRO was slashing hundreds of staff from enterprise services to meet an earlier funding crunch.
The CSIRO Staff Association on Thursday called on the Albanese government to step in to stop some of the agency’s biggest job cuts in a decade or risk undermining its own productivity and innovation agenda.
“Unfortunately, there’s a clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it,” CSIRO Staff Association Section Secretary Susan Tonks said.
“Publicly funded research and development is where some of the biggest gains in productivity have come from.”
The CSIRO union said hundreds more job losses loom even after 440 staff had lost jobs last financial year and approximately 200 contract jobs were left to expire under new agency head Doug Hilton.
Dr Hilton joined the agency in late 2023 as the CSIRO lost its one-off pandemic funding of $454 million, triggering a search for saving that has also included non-labour costs and around 80 research roles.
But research roles had been safe for most of last year, with Dr Hilton telling a November Senate estimates hearing “it was important to retain our research capability” while the portfolio was reviewed.
But that stay appears to have ended, with the CSIRO no longer ruling out research job losses.
“CSIRO is reshaping its research portfolio to ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future,” a spokesperson told InnovationAus.com.
“To achieve this, we must retain the distinct advantages we have as Australia’s national science agency. But we will also need to evolve, becoming sharper in our focus, doing fewer things, better and at scale.”
The spokesperson did not say where the research jobs would be cut or how many are likely but said workforce planning will “ensure we have the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities”.
“This will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our Enterprise Agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made.”
In the last federal Budget, the CSIRO received a $45 million boost to “maintain its world-leading research capability”.
The budget papers show the CSIRO will lose around 450 staff this year, but the figure includes some non-research roles and reflects the enterprise services cuts that began last year.
The science agency is losing staff at a time when the public and private investment in research and development is at record low levels. The government will receive a review of Australia’s research and development system later this year that is expected to trigger major reforms, but not until 2026 at the earliest.
When the CSIRO union last called on the Albanese government to intervene to stop job cuts, then Science minister Ed Husic declined to do so.
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ABC Tasmania Statewide Drive, 7 August 2025
Kylie Baxter: This is Drive with Kylie Baxter on 936 ABC Radio Hobart and ABC Northern Tasmania. I wonder if you know anyone that works for the CSIRO or maybe you personally work there. It wouldn’t be completely surprising. If you do, it’s one of the largest science and technology organisations, I believe, in the world. Now, you might remember last year, more than 400 jobs were slashed at the research organisation. Well, the Community and Public Sector Union says staff at the CSIRO are worried that more job cuts are going to be announced. The union is calling on the federal government to intervene to cuts. Susan Tonks is the secretary of the CSIRO Staff Association and joins me. Susan, good evening.
Susan Tonks: Kylie. Thanks for talking to me.
KB: How worried are staff? What are you hearing?
ST: Look, we’re hearing, look, staff members, they’re angry and they stress that, again, it looks like they’re facing what looks like a second round of job cuts, this time across research portfolios. The research portfolios are set to be re-evaluated at a September workshop and together with what we already know out of the May budget statement, indications are for more staff reductions, you know, know, on those numbers, similar to what we’ve seen in 2024. This has created a real anxiety among staff on CSIRO’s strategic direction against, you know, the potential of these further job cuts.
KB: And so you’re saying that we could see up to 400 jobs or more cut in this financial year?
ST: That’s what the numbers indicate, yes. And so surely more job cuts would be a serious blow on so many levels. I mean, not just to staff morale, but clearly to, you know, the organisation itself. That’s the feedback we’re getting from members. As you’ve said, as you’ve already you know, CSIRO management already have seen off over 440 key scientific support roles since mid-2024 to date. That doesn’t include, you know, hundreds of contract positions that are not renewed. And this is happening all while the Albanese government says we need to lift Australia’s productivity. But it’s sitting on its hands while CSIRO job cuts look like they’re going to continue. CSIRO is the very institution that keeps delivering better productivity. So, yeah, we really are concerned for CSIRO staff and our members going forward.
KB: My guest is Susan Tonks, the Secretary of the CSIRO Staff. So when will you have more clarity on whether there are going to be job cuts?
ST: I would say following the September workshops, we’ll have more clarity around that probably October, early October.
KB: And what about Tasmania specifically? Any idea as to the possibility of job numbers?
ST: We don’t have, well, you know, we know how many, sorry, jobs are already within Tasmania, of course, sitting around the 335 mark across a couple of sites at Battery Point and Sandy Bay. Tasmania, I don’t have like specifics too early to know where, the impact would be for Tasmania. We’re too well aware that the impact in regions like Tasmania are always, you know, it’s a strong impact for areas like that are small. The main research unit in Tasmania is the Environment Group. That Environment Group encompasses, you know, atmosphere, oceans, biodiversity, natural resources, quite specific areas around climate change, water resources, marine environment and other environmental impacts. So, you know, like it’s a big unit. It wasn’t affected in 2024. So there is a fear from staff that, you know, it’s not going to miss this round of cuts.
KB: And so would jobs be, in your opinion, more likely to be research jobs or could they be any jobs?
ST: Well, with the 440 coming out already from the scientific support roles, it’s hard to say that they would be coming from somewhere else, and it’s particularly with that assessment, you know, being done in September.
KB: And so is this now a case of staff have to just simply wait until those workshops, as you referred to them, are held in September? Is there anything that they can do to proactively do anything?
ST: Look, they will. It’s not they won’t have input into that, but I imagine there will be a leadership group there working out what they need to do. But they will have have to wait to see. CSIRO is saying they have got budget sustainability issues and if the government is is serious about lifting productivity, they need to step in, commit to long-term stability and secure funding and stop the job cuts for our National Science Agency.
KB: And just finally, will you continue to lobby the federal government to intervene to prevent further cuts?
ST: Yes, we will.
KB: Susan Tonks, thank you for joining me on the programme and providing this information. Great. Thank you so much. Susan Tonks, as I said, is the Secretary of the CSIRO Staff Association. It must be very concerning for staff. And, yeah, we do fully understand that. We’ll keep you up to date with the situation.
PS News, 8 August 2025
Hundreds more CSIRO jobs are on the line, sparking criticism of the Federal Government that it can’t be serious about improving productivity if it’s going to hamstring the nation’s science and research agency.
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation lost 440 jobs in the last financial year, but more are slated to go as the agency talks about “reshaping” the organisation.
CSIRO has confirmed more jobs are in the firing line, but it won’t say how many.
The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says losses will be in the hundreds and warns “ongoing aggressive cuts” at the CSIRO is putting Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity at risk.
CPSU’s spokesperson for CSIRO staff issues, Susan Tonks, said the government was turning a blind eye to the “biggest job cuts in a decade” under the leadership of Doug Hilton who has been chief executive since 2023.
“The work of the CSIRO is essential to lifting national productivity and driving economic growth,” Ms Tonks said.
“Unfortunately, there’s a clear disconnect between the government’s talk about boosting productivity and their failure to support the very institution that helps deliver it.
“Publicly funded research and development is where some of the biggest gains in productivity have come from.”
She said deep job cuts at the CSIRO were directly undermining Australia’s ability to innovate, compete and grow.
“And this will continue to be the case as long as this government sits on its hands while hundreds of staff at the CSIRO are shown the door with little to no explanation.
“If this government is serious about productivity, it must step in, stop the cuts, and back our country’s peak science institution.”
The CPSU said in addition to the 440 staff already cut, about 200 contract jobs were left to expire.
Now hundreds more jobs are anticipated to go later this year.
A CSIRO spokesperson said the organisation needed to evolve and sharpen its focus.
An ongoing staffing restructure is part of that process.
“CSIRO is reshaping its research portfolio to ensure we are focused on delivering the science Australia needs now and into the future,” the spokesperson said.
“To achieve this, we must retain the distinct advantages we have as Australia’s national science agency.
“But we will also need to evolve, becoming sharper in our focus, doing fewer things, better and at scale.”
The spokesperson said as CSIRO continued to evolve its portfolio, it would undertake workforce planning to ensure it had the right scale and scientific capability in place to deliver against national priorities.
“This will be done in line with well-established processes, policies and our enterprise agreement, including our commitment to consult with staff prior to decisions being made.
“The 2025-26 Budget papers include a figure called the average staffing level (ASL), calculated based on an estimate of staffing levels over the financial year.
“The decrease in ASL in part reflects the reduction of our enterprise services (non-research) staff as a restructure in that area of the organisation – commenced last financial year – nears completion.”
The CPSU said the cuts came at a time when Australia’s investment in research and development was already low by international standards.
In a submission to the government’s upcoming productivity roundtable, the union warned Australia’s long-term productivity and innovation capacity was being actively undermined by aggressive job cuts and underinvestment in the public institution that powered research, science and economic growth.
It said CSIRO had been responsible for some of the most important scientific innovations in Australia’s history, including the invention of Wi-Fi, plastic bank notes and Aerogard.
The CPSU is calling on the Federal Government to step in, stop the cuts and commit to the long-term stability of Australia’s national science agency.
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ABC Online, 14 August 2025
Millions of irreplaceable biodiversity specimens have been re-homed at a new CSIRO facility that the agency says will support research to better understand and manage Australia’s natural environment.
Named ‘Diversity’, the $90 million National Research Collections building in Canberra features temperature-controlled vaults that are bushfire and pest-resistant while designed to preserve 13 million specimens for future generations.
Among the specimens, which have been collected over 150 years, are 55,000 birds, 17,000 orchids, 2.4 million moths and seven million beetles.
Dr Clare Holleley, who is the director of vertebrate collections, says the facility serves as a “time machine for Australia’s biodiversity”.
“What this building captures is the full diversity of Australian fauna and flora,”she said.
“It’s taken snapshots of specimens over time, and when we put all of those little snapshots together, it puts together a picture of how Australia’s biodiversity is changing.
“We can learn from those trends and potentially predict what is going to happen in the future.”
‘A library of our biodiversity’
The collections include 99 per cent of Australia’s native birds, as well as exotic bird species, skeletons, mammals, reptiles stored in ethanol, eggs and frozen tissue.
Relocating the specimens took about a year.
The official opening of the facility coincides with National Science Week, described by CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton as an “exciting” moment.
“It’s a little bit like a gallery or a museum that holds our national heritage … it’s a library of our biodiversity,” he said.
Dr Hilton described the facility as “cutting-edge”, featuring new genomics laboratories and digitisation facilities that will allow scientists to extract and share more information from research specimens.
“If we can’t understand how things are changing over time, it’s very hard to conserve things for the future,” he said.
“What we have here is a facility that holds specimens in a highly secure way and allows us to digitise and automate digitisation in a way that is just the envy of the world.”
‘Our science has to adapt’
While there was celebration at the opening of the building, concern remains about the potential of job cuts at the agency, with the Community and Public Sector Union warning that hundreds of jobs could be axed this year.
In responding to those concerns, Dr Hilton said: “Our science has to adapt”.
“We have to be able to shape our workforce and choose the programs of research that we think will give the best impact to the Australian community for the problems that face us today and over the next 10 years,” he said.
“There are programs of research that we may have to stop in order for us to be able to do new programs of research to tackle those big problems like productivity, sustainability and our sovereign science capacity.”
He said the agency would be reviewing its whole portfolio of science next month and then would need to make “hard choices”, but wouldn’t say how many jobs could be affected.
“We need to be thinking about the programs of research that we do. We have to be refining those to make sure we are working on the big problems. I think the Australian community would expect us to do that,” he said.
The new National Research Collections building was jointly funded by the CSIRO and the Department of Education through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.
While the building won’t be open to the public, the collections will be accessible to researchers, governments, and citizen scientists worldwide.
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Jenna Price for The Canberra Times, 13 August 2025
I didn’t think much about deepfakes. What would any lunatic monster want with me? I mean, no one would believe anything these guys come up with when it comes to ancient naked women.
But there is a huge risk to the young, the Gen Zs, and the millennials. And these people are clearly the targets of these malevolent forces. Blackmail, bullying, treachery. Terrible.
What is a deepfake? I asked Cam Wilson, Crikey’s tech reporter and editor of tech newsletter, The Sizzle.
“Deepfake is AI-generated fake content, [usually] non-consensual explicit images and videos,” he explains.
Apparently, it arrived in the mid-to-late 2010s. “But it’s been brought into the mainstream … from people making sexual images of celebrities.”
For a while, says Wilson, “it mostly meant to put someone’s face on someone else’s body, but now the term (and the practice) includes completely new generated AI content.”
Wilson says that there are laws which criminalise creation of deepfakes – but also innovation on the horizon. Which brings me to the CSIRO.
The absolutely brilliant scientists at the CSIRO have brought Australians a truckload of goodies. The most famous invention? That’d be wifi without which most of us couldn’t exist. At least I couldn’t.
Now the CSIRO’s team is on the verge of an extraordinary breakthrough, developing an algorithm that can block images from being used to create deepfakes.
Sounds complicated but amazing – and god knows if I’ve got this very technical explanation right, but the algorithm can change the pixels on an image and make it unrecognisable for AI.
Oh my god, can they do that for art and journalism and books, too? How good! Thieves and monsters foiled at the start.
Now, about CSIRO. A new CEO, Doug Hilton, was appointed in late 2023. He announced 500 jobs would go in key support services. They’ve all gone.
Now there are fears CSIRO may cut another 400 research positions in this financial year.
CSIRO staff association secretary Susan Tonks says the breakthrough on deepfakes is enormously exciting.
“Everyone’s talking about safer spaces,” she says. Meanwhile, there are concerns that Hilton may preside over job cuts in this area. The team responsible for the new research, Data 61, could be at risk, says Tonks.
“We can’t retain bright new talent at this rate,” she says.
So you only cut jobs if you’ve got no money. And essential organisations like the CSIRO should be funded to the hilt. This particular discovery could protect the lives of so many. Think that’s an exaggeration? Read this and freak out.
Earlier this year, the Australian Institute of Criminology published a report which explained that AI technologies are increasingly playing a role in the creation of child sexual abuse material, including “deepfakes, ‘nudifying’ pictures of clothed children, and manipulating images or videos to depict known or unknown children in sexually abusive scenarios”.
It also says “offenders are using AI to alter photos from victims’ social media and other online posts and using these altered images to sexually extort the victims”.
So, I am a bit puzzled about the government’s priorities. I thought a Labor government would back the science, back the research, recognise that whatever it puts in, Australia gets back in spades.
Now the government is treating the CSIRO the way it is treating universities. Not a good sign for a country that needs a bright future.