Extract from The Guardian
Greens senators have labelled the CSIRO
chief executive’s performance before a Senate committee as “evasive”,
claiming he has not adequately explained why the agency cut the jobs of
climate scientists.
The CSIRO chief executive, Dr Larry Marshall, told a senate committee hearing he would handle the restructure announcement differently, but attributed stress to staff to “misreporting” that 350 job cuts would all be to climate scientists.
Marshall said the 100 job cuts in the oceans and atmosphere division announced in February was an “upper limit” but the agency was trying to minimise cuts. The chief financial officer, Hazel Bennett, said of the current planned cuts only 75 pertain to climate scientists.
Marshall said cuts were made to the oceans and atmosphere division to achieve a strategic shift to mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change and because the agency was “not in a financial position to make up a shortfall in external funding”.
He said the cuts were not made due to any formal or informal instruction from the government but were “made by CSIRO executive team with input by the leadership teams and endorsed by our board”.
Bennett said the board had been advised of the restructure before Christmas, in January, and finally on 2 February, just two days before cuts were confirmed.
She said consultation with stakeholders was limited because the CSIRO did not want to pre-empt its notification to staff on 4 February.
Marshall was questioned on conversations with the innovation and science minister, and a meeting with then-communications minister Malcolm Turnbull over a salmon meal in early 2015. He refused to detail the content of the conversations.
Marshall said there was no direction to institute climate program cuts, but the CSIRO was guided by the ministerial statement of expectations for the agency, as it is required to do.
After the committee hearing, the Greens senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, said “normally when an organisation goes through a significant restructuring there would be an open process, a transparent process and a full consultation with staff and stakeholders. It’s been secretive, there’s been no transparency and it’s blown up.”
Another Greens senator, Janet Rice, said “there’s so much we still don’t know, there is a whole period of time when decisions were made between mid-December and mid-January, and no email documentation for it”.
“Larry Marshall was completely evasive about who he consulted in that period of time. So we need to get to the bottom of this.”
Whish-Wilson said “we cannot as a committee get a decent answer about who instigated this, and why, and what evidence it was based on. So far we’ve only got spin.”
After the hearing, shadow research, industry and innovation minister Kim Carr said “I’m disgusted ... I’ve never seen anything like it”.
“There’s no doubt in my mind this new management of the CSIRO is responding to government priorities. They’ve taken it far too literally they need to find money from other sources.
“One of the biggest consequences of $140m budget cuts to CSIRO was that there were job losses.
“It’s time we looked at not just the structure of the CSIRO but the way decisions are made, whether they are consistent with the objects of the Act and whether or not they’re meeting Australia’s national interest in terms of the future direction of the CSIRO,” Carr said.
Marshall refuted claims CSIRO was moving away from public good scientific research, labelling it disturbing and untrue.
“Our people believe what they do is for the benefit of the Australian public – and that’s true whether research is purely government funded, is helping industry be more productive or helping national priorities.”
The CSIRO chief executive, Dr Larry Marshall, told a senate committee hearing he would handle the restructure announcement differently, but attributed stress to staff to “misreporting” that 350 job cuts would all be to climate scientists.
Marshall said the 100 job cuts in the oceans and atmosphere division announced in February was an “upper limit” but the agency was trying to minimise cuts. The chief financial officer, Hazel Bennett, said of the current planned cuts only 75 pertain to climate scientists.
Marshall said cuts were made to the oceans and atmosphere division to achieve a strategic shift to mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change and because the agency was “not in a financial position to make up a shortfall in external funding”.
He said the cuts were not made due to any formal or informal instruction from the government but were “made by CSIRO executive team with input by the leadership teams and endorsed by our board”.
Bennett said the board had been advised of the restructure before Christmas, in January, and finally on 2 February, just two days before cuts were confirmed.
She said consultation with stakeholders was limited because the CSIRO did not want to pre-empt its notification to staff on 4 February.
Marshall was questioned on conversations with the innovation and science minister, and a meeting with then-communications minister Malcolm Turnbull over a salmon meal in early 2015. He refused to detail the content of the conversations.
Marshall said there was no direction to institute climate program cuts, but the CSIRO was guided by the ministerial statement of expectations for the agency, as it is required to do.
After the committee hearing, the Greens senator, Peter Whish-Wilson, said “normally when an organisation goes through a significant restructuring there would be an open process, a transparent process and a full consultation with staff and stakeholders. It’s been secretive, there’s been no transparency and it’s blown up.”
Another Greens senator, Janet Rice, said “there’s so much we still don’t know, there is a whole period of time when decisions were made between mid-December and mid-January, and no email documentation for it”.
“Larry Marshall was completely evasive about who he consulted in that period of time. So we need to get to the bottom of this.”
Whish-Wilson said “we cannot as a committee get a decent answer about who instigated this, and why, and what evidence it was based on. So far we’ve only got spin.”
After the hearing, shadow research, industry and innovation minister Kim Carr said “I’m disgusted ... I’ve never seen anything like it”.
“There’s no doubt in my mind this new management of the CSIRO is responding to government priorities. They’ve taken it far too literally they need to find money from other sources.
“One of the biggest consequences of $140m budget cuts to CSIRO was that there were job losses.
“It’s time we looked at not just the structure of the CSIRO but the way decisions are made, whether they are consistent with the objects of the Act and whether or not they’re meeting Australia’s national interest in terms of the future direction of the CSIRO,” Carr said.
Marshall refuted claims CSIRO was moving away from public good scientific research, labelling it disturbing and untrue.
“Our people believe what they do is for the benefit of the Australian public – and that’s true whether research is purely government funded, is helping industry be more productive or helping national priorities.”
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