Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

The CSIRO is one of Australia's most respected institutions. Since its establishment 100 years ago in 1916, the CSIRO has been responsible for countless discoveries that have benefited our great country. But, while CSIRO's research may lead to commercial applications of great value to our nation, it is an organisation that exists to serve the national interest in ways that are far broader than the generation of profit from commercial products. The CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre, a major part of which is located in Aspendale in my electorate of Isaacs, is one of the world's greatest contributors to international climate research, yet the Abbott-Turnbull government's cuts to climate research will have a devastating impact on the Aspendale centre. Many scientists who have spent their professional lives working for the public good through their groundbreaking climate research are about to lose their jobs.

Like many Australians, I had hoped that Mr Turnbull would walk his talk and be smarter than his predecessor, but, with the devastation of CSIRO's climate research capacity on Mr Turnbull's watch, we see that he has capitulated to the right-wing, antiscience, anti-climate-change agenda of the party that he now leads. A Prime Minister must be judged by his actions, and Mr Turnbull's actions in the face of what he knows is the compelling need for action on climate change say a great deal about the type of man that he has become. There is very little that I agree with the member for Warringah on, but his claim this last month that the Turnbull government is a continuation of his own with only cosmetic differences in policy and approach seems lamentably correct.

Twice in three weeks TheNew York Times featured criticisms of the Prime Minister's cuts to the CSIRO, labelling them as 'deplorable' and 'making no sense'. A letter signed by nearly 3,000 scientists from across the world called on Mr Turnbull to halt his plan to cut from the CSIRO's climate research capacity. The Prime Minister's only response to these compelling denunciations of his policy has been a pathetic silence. Science cuts are stupid cuts. The sacking of some of our leading climate scientists which will very soon commence at CSIRO's Aspendale centre reflects the twisted priorities and the duplicity of a Prime Minister who loves smooth talk about jobs and innovation but whose actions show that he cannot be trusted to deliver. You cannot have an innovation plan or talk about an educated nation if you are proceeding with cuts to the CSIRO, cuts to higher education and cuts to schools, all of which we see in this budget delivered last night.

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