The science of sacking. Be gone CSIRO scientists!

CSIRO chief Doug Hilton has announced the sacking of 350 scientists, but the science body’s $965,000-a-year head is now refusing to face public scrutiny of his ‘science of redundancies’. Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick reports.

In April 2024, in the context of the newly announced ‘Made in Australia’ policy, MWM wrote about our flat-lining production as a percentage of GDP (5%) and our rapidly falling economic complexity world ranking (105).This).

We didn’t blame the Albanian Government for this… It took many governments to make this happen, all focused heavily on exporting our rocks and fossil fuels. We wrote optimistically about new opportunities to stabilize the percentage of production and economic complexity figures.

Our optimism about the need for strong and effective leadership has waned. The question was: did Albanese have what it takes? “I guess we’ll see when the time comes,” we offered.

Is the Future Made in Australia? Everything is in the app

wrong route

On 18 November last year, CSIRO’s Chief Executive, Dr Doug Hilton, issued a statement of intent for the organisation. The announcement included the following statements:the organization will need to reduce roles in Research Units by 300 to 350 full-time equivalents…”

Sitting at 105This 62nd in the world’s economic complexity rankingAnd In 1995 the Government’s response was to reduce the number of scientists who wanted to determine our future.

This is stupid and stupider; Really.

The move has rightly attracted parliamentary attention, with Green senators Barbara Pocock and Peter Whish-Wilson and independent Senator David Pocock taking the initiative. Senate investigation He joined the CSIRO.

don’t blame us

Responding to a question about the redundancies while announcing the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jim Chalmers said the government was not to blame, pointing to the CSIRO’s senior leadership.

“From the government’s point of view, we are increasing its resources; Last time it was an extra $45 million, this time it’s an extra $233 million, and that’s because we generally believe in the vital role that science and the CSIRO will play in the future of our economy..”

“How the CSIRO manages its budget is a matter for them and the Board; They made it clear that the pressure on their budgets was not due to Government cuts, on the contrary, we increased their budgets.” said Dr Chalmers.

This was similar to Prime Minister Albanese suggesting that the misuse of travel allowance was not his responsibility nearly a week before he was forced to refer the matter to the Pay Tribunal.

The CSIRO is an organization that contributes directly to the future of the country, but the Government is washing its hands of the way it is structured.

Chalmers’ statement is disingenuous.

Freedom of Information (FIO) request by MWM It revealed the government was fully aware of the CSIRO’s plans, including a major briefing going back to 2024.

scientist confidentiality

MWM’s FOI request was for ministerial briefings and any internal analysis of the impact of redundancies on Australia’s science capacity. After initially threatening not to process the request on the grounds that it contained 2,586 pages of relevant information (which led MWM to narrow the scope of the request), the CSIRO announced that there were two ministerial briefings and Executive Team documents that it did not want to share with the Australian public.

Million-dollar CSIRO’s top scientist doesn’t want his research colleague to be publicly scrutinised.

Two briefings hidden from the public: ministry summariesbut that doesn’t stop the CSIRO from calling them cabinet documents. The CSIRO accepted that the briefings had not reached the Cabinet.

Apparently the CSIRO is good at science but terrible at administrative law (perhaps it suits them to be terrible). The justification provided in the FOI decision will fail scrutiny.

shrinking violets

Recognizing the fragility (or perhaps impropriety) of their claims for cabinet exemption, the CSIRO also claims that disclosing their work would take them from tall scientists on near-seven-figure salaries to wilted violets unable to function.

Figure 2 – Terrible Advice exemption (Source: CSIRO)

“This is a situation.”Our advice is fearless, although in reality we are afraid of everyone except the minister.’.

MWM will submit on appeal that such advice is one that the minister should not have considered. We will also ask the CEO under cross-examination whether his salary allows him to do anything other than give the most sincere advice.

dehumanization

“Doing this is another reason why the public cannot see the documents.”Can reasonably be expected to cause undue stress or other emotional or psychological harm to a large proportion of CSIRO staff (whether or not they are ultimately actually affected by the matter).”

CSIRO management considers that announcing to its scientific team that 350 people will lose their jobs will not cause them undue stress or other emotional or psychological harm, but the route taken by management to reach this decision will.

Nonsense on stilts.

350 scientists will go and CSIRO won’t say who. The best information they have is that 130-150 will go from a pool of 715 ‘Environment’ scientists, 100 -110 from a pool of 329 ‘Health and Biosafety’ scientists and 25-35 from a pool of 364 ‘Minerals’ scientists.

They all had to spend Christmas lunch with their families thinking about their future, but somehow detailing the science of redundancy would do them greater harm.

Perhaps Senator Pocock wasn’t listening to the advice cowards in the Executive team when he mentioned a letter to Hilton from a CSIRO employee in Senate Estimates. ‘The system is not only dehumanised; He is no longer human.‘

The Hunger Games… but not for AUKUS

According to media reports, Senator Whish-Wilson had a minute at the end of the Estimates hearing to question whether ‘The Hunger Games’ was being played within the organisation.

I can only imagine the laboratory atmosphere it once had.

Meanwhile, the Albanian ministry is happily confusing. The government needs to control the budget so that the US can properly fund the economic complexity of the AUKUS shipyards (15This economic complexity) and the United Kingdom (7This place).

In their view, Australia does not seem to appreciate the need for domestic production and export diversification. They clearly believe that our future lies in fossil fuel exports and are providing long-term approvals accordingly.

And with fewer than 150 environmental scientists around, there will be fewer obstacles to their plans.

Climate Betrayal: How secret deals with Japan kept Australia gaslighted for decades.

final note: MWM appealed the CSIRO’s FOI decision to the Information Commissioner but asked for the appeal to be transferred to the Administrative Review Tribunal. The appeal will not be considered before the conclusion of the Senate Inquiry; This is a situation that will benefit the CSIRO and the Government.

Rex Patrick is a former South Australian Senator and formerly a submariner in the armed forces. Known as an anti-corruption and transparency warrior, Rex is also known as “Transparency Warrior“