‘Pry open the jaws of Treasury’ to fund CSIRO amid hundreds of job losses, Labor MP Ed Husic tells own party | CSIRO

Ed Husic has challenged his own government to “open the Treasury’s mouth” after Australia’s national scientific agency announced up to 350 research jobs would be cut to tackle a budget cliff.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) announced on Wednesday it would cut 300 to 350 research unit roles as part of efforts to reduce the scope of research and address an aging portfolio of properties in urgent need of modernisation.

Husic, who as a former science minister oversaw redundancies to CSIRO management and support staff last year, said “some of the driest minds in government, particularly the Treasury and finance”, viewed CSIRO’s funding as a budget cost rather than an investment for the future.

“If you value science, you have to stop seeing science and research as a cost and see it as an investment in the future, prosperity and capacity of the country,” Husic told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“I think the task at hand is to roll up our sleeves, get out of the guts jar and open up the Treasury to make sure our national science agency is funded in a way that is good for the country in the long term. If you want to find the money, you can find it.”

“I mean, we found $600 million for a football team in Papua New Guinea. I’m confident we can find the money for our national science agency, because it’s an investment, as I said, in our future capabilities as a country, it’s really important.”

Guardian Australia understands most of the roles to be cut will be in health and biosecurity, agriculture, food and environmental research units. Science Minister Tim Ayres said it had been determined that nutrition researchers, a team within the health and biosecurity unit, were no longer needed.

A series of town halls were held with staff on Wednesday, according to sources interviewed by Guardian Australia, who said half of the “cut” roles could come from the environmental unit.

The redundancies will add to at least 818 roles lost since July 2024, as CSIRO chief financial officer Tom Munyard confirmed at a Senate estimates hearing in October.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended the announcement on Wednesday, saying his government was “science-friendly” in a comparison to widely criticized redundancies at the CSIRO under the former Abbott government.

Between the 2012-13 and 2015-16 federal budgets the CSIRO’s average headcount fell by 659 to 5,056.

Under the Albanian government, the average headcount rose from 5,514 in 2022-23 to 6,050 the following year, with a reduction of 555 staff expected this financial year to 5,495.

“The reality is that we support science, we support the CSIRO and we want to make sure that every dollar allocated to scientific research goes in the right direction,” Albanese said.

Parliamentary library analysis commissioned by ACT senator David Pocock in October showed nominal funding for the agency remained relatively stable, but annual funding levels as a percentage of GDP have fallen over the last decade, with a few exceptions, and are now at the lowest level since 1978.

Finance Minister Jim Chalmers has rejected suggestions that the Albanian government could seek more science funding in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook due in December.

“I have great faith in the CSIRO. I think it will play an important role not only in our science base but also in our wider industrial base. That’s why we’re providing significant funding and we understand that people want us to provide more,” he said.

CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton said on Tuesday after the announcement that the decision was necessary to set up the agency “for decades to come”.

Hilton said at an October estimates hearing that the agency’s budget allocation “doesn’t cover the cost of doing science,” pointing to rising costs related to cybersecurity and the need to replace aging buildings.

About 80% of CSIRO’s more than 800 buildings are nearing the end of their life cycle, and Hilton said the agency would seek between $80 million and $135 million each year to replace or renovate those buildings.