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

I stand today to speak about the recent cuts to the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre in Aspendale, in the great electorate of Isaacs. A category five catastrophe—'Cyclone Turnbull', if you will—recently hit the Aspendale CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre, cutting a reported 70 jobs from the centre and a total of 350 CSIRO jobs nationwide in the government's latest round of cuts to science funding.

Sadly, this is not the first time that jobs have been cut at the Aspendale marine and atmospheric research centre since the election of the Liberals in 2013. I was joined by my Senate colleague Kim Carr at the centre in 2014 when the first round of CSIRO cuts under the Liberals occurred, and spoke with climate scientists about how this government has failed science in Australia.

The CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research centre in Aspendale is one of the most important carbon research centres in the world. It is, to quote David Schimel, the chief adviser on carbon cycle science at NASA's jet propulsion lab in California, 'a national treasure'. The centre is responsible for some of the most significant findings in climate change research over the past 50 years. Its research into climate change in the Southern Ocean is second to none, and the centre's contribution to international climate change research is exemplary.

The Turnbull government's cuts will see a reported 70 people at this centre lose their jobs, but they are not the only people to lose from this terrible situation. Australian science will lose. Australian innovation—a word so beloved by the Prime Minister—will lose. Australia's ability to contribute to international climate change research will be damaged and all Australians will lose from the lost research and lost data. Two thousand nine hundred scientists from 60 countries said in a letter to the Prime Minister that these cuts have 'alarmed the global research community'.

The Prime Minister likes to say that his is a government that believes in climate change. Yet his government has failed at every hurdle. The Prime Minister had his chance to join Labor and commit to real action on climate change but he blew it, instead opting for the long-discredited Direct Action Plan of his failed predecessor.

Opportunity rarely knocks twice, but the opportunity is there now for the Prime Minister to admit his mistake and make a small positive contribution to Australia's role in fighting climate change by restoring funding to the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research division and guaranteeing the jobs of the CSIRO marine and atmospheric researchers that have been made redundant by this government. I call on the Prime Minister to seize this opportunity and embrace science, embrace innovation and, particularly, embrace opportunities for future generations.