Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Ronaldson in response to questions we asked him today in the science area. I am absolutely gobsmacked that the government continues to hide what it is doing in the science area and in particular to the CSIRO when we hear the government today refer to events that happened in 2008! They like to tell us that they are the government. Well, let us hear their plans for the CSIRO. Let us hear their plans. Let us see what the Commission of Audit has to say about CSIRO.

We heard the government today go on about how important the mining industry is to Western Australia. It is important to Western Australia. It is vital to Australia's economy. Yesterday I drove past the CSIRO's really fabulous facility next to Curtin University, and yet I find out today that the government has ticked off on six redundancies taking place at that facility in Waterford—as I speak, during Science Week!

You might say, six redundancies—so what? Guess what they are. Three are scientists. This is what the government is doing in the midst of Science Week, getting rid of three science positions. In addition to that, it is getting rid of six project scientists who all hold Bachelor of Science degrees—in Science Week—and yet they are trying to tell us that they are the friend of science.

We heard today that apparently the government has some commitment to the CSIRO. I think that is a commitment to downsize it, to dumb it down. What we know about the government is that they are not interested in facts. They do not like facts. They do not believe in carbon. They do not believe in upskilling the workforce. This is a government that is about dumb and dumber. I find it extraordinary that in my home state of Western Australia with the fabulous facility at Waterford—which is absolutely about the development of minerals and at looking at smart ways to continue to develop and extract; that is what the Waterford CSIRO facility focuses on—that this government sees fit in Science Week to just tick off on nine science positions going out of that establishment.

That will impact on Western Australia. There is no doubt about that. The CSIRO is a premier organisation, a leader in scientific development, and yet the government continues to go along in absolute silence about its plans for CSIRO. To sit here today and be told by the government that they are some kind of friend of the scientific community is ludicrous. All I can say is that every time I hear the government utter the word 'friend' and 'industry' that means that industry had better watch out. Whenever they say that, there are cuts and they cut deep and they cut savagely.

So it is time that the government came clean on the Commission of Audit and what it has planned for science. The problem we have got with this government is that it does not even have a minister for science. That is how little value it promotes in looking at scientific breakthroughs and promoting the best possible science in the land. They just want to be a dumb and dumber government. They just want to dumb down Australian industry. They do not believe in facts. They do not believe in science. They just believe in the cheapest possible way of dumbing down our sector.

Particularly in Western Australia with our links to South-East Asia, one of the other important roles the CSIRO does is undertake research specific to South-East Asia. But, gee, the government would not know that because guess what: they do not have a science minister! You cannot keep your finger on the pulse if you are too busy doing a million other jobs. The fact that it does not have a science minister was one of the things that Senator Johnston led an attack on. He could not believe it. He said, 'For God's sake, we have got a sports minister and no science minister!' So one of your own, a Western Australian senator, thinks that you are not doing the right thing. So come clean on CSIRO. Put a cross against the nine positions in WA, because we value science on our side. (Time expired)