Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's fine to invest money in shiny new ships and buildings, cut ribbons at election time and fly the Prime Minister down multiple times to make announcements. What we need investment in, in Tasmania and in Hobart, is the people. We have a situation where up to 80 scientists and their families—an absolutely integral part of our scientific community in Hobart—are facing a funding cliff at the end of this year, after nearly 15 years of funding research. And it's not just climate research; it's research on the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic. The projects the scientists are working on are globally collaborative. This is absolutely critical. The single biggest issue in Southern Tasmania at the moment is: where is the money that we need to give these scientists certainty so that they don't leave and go elsewhere? It's about time your government took science funding seriously and stumped up what you're going to do about science funding both in Hobart and in Australia.

Question agreed to.