Dio Wang (WA, Palmer United Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Industry and Science, Senator Ronaldson. We learned this week that up to 200 jobs are at risk while the apparent merger of National ICT Australia, NICTA, with CSIRO is being negotiated behind closed doors. NICTA is projected to contribute over $3 billion to Australia's GDP and has been incubating and producing start-up business at an average of one new company every three months. Minister, are we going to discover that this so-called merger is a backdoor for cost-cutting and how do government promises square with the continual shedding of valuable jobs in the research sector?