CSIRO cuts highlight which jobs government protects in national interest

Sometimes, scientific breakthroughs can originate in the most unlikely of places. Curious and clever minds can come up with incredible ideas, given the right resources.

In 1930s Australia, flystrike was posing a serious threat to Australia's sheep herd and the national economy. The CSIRO recruited scientist Doug Waterhouse to work on solutions. His research morphed into finding a way to protect troops from mosquitoes bearing malaria when World War II broke out.

The result was what we now know as Aerogard, one of the CSIRO's greatest achievements.

In the early 1990s, a team of CSIRO scientists led by John O'Sullivan was trying to work out how to detect tiny radio signals hypothetically emanating from exploding black holes.

This research into theoretical deep space radio waves was almost certainly not considered a national priority at the time. Yet the team had the room to follow their curiosity and eventually came up with a technology now used in billions of devices every day — wi-fi.

'Worse than Abbott'

Australians rightly feel proud of the CSIRO. It's a respected public research institution.

This is one of the reasons why the Albanese government often leans heavily on its work to score political points. The CSIRO's annual GenCost report, which details the cost of different types of energy generation, was cited endlessly by Labor to attack the Coalition's plan for nuclear power before the election.

This week, the CSIRO announced up to 350 research positions would go at the organisation. That's on top of more than 800 jobs cut over the past 18 months.

The CSIRO Staff Association issued a press release designed to hit Labor where it hurts. "Worse than Abbott," read the headline, describing these job cuts as more devastating than those inflicted by the former Coalition government.

The prime minister, who in opposition accused the Coalition of "hollowing out" the CSIRO, rejected the slur.

"We're friends of science," he insisted.

These job cuts, Anthony Albanese claimed, were simply about making sure "every single dollar for scientific research is going in the right direction".

A history of chronic underfunding

Governments certainly have an obligation to ensure taxpayers' money is well spent, particularly with a budget stuck in structural deficit. If money is being wasted on unnecessary research, there's a good argument for re-directing it to more productive areas.

But this is not about re-prioritising resources. At least not according to the CEO of the CSIRO, Doug Hilton.

"At the moment we're not in a position to re-focus on other areas," Hilton told Radio National. "We are looking to focus our portfolio on things like critical minerals, but the sustainability challenge means that we need to save money."

The term "sustainability challenge" here, is a polite way of saying chronic underfunding.

While government funding has increased each year, it has not kept up with inflation. Far from it. According to Hilton, funding has grown by an average 1.3 per cent per annum over the past 15 years. That's compared to an average inflation rate of 2.7 per cent. More than double.

In other words, funding is being cut in real terms.

In a blunt assessment, the CSIRO boss laid the blame at the feet of successive governments. Their level of below inflation funding, "just doesn't keep up with the cost of doing science".

No more 'pure' research

While the CSIRO still has capacity to focus on priority areas for "applied" research, including clean energy and artificial intelligence, there's now less room for so-called "pure" research, which isn't tied to finding practical solutions.

This is of deep concern to the scientific community.

"Amazing things come from amazing minds when they don't have to follow the bouncing ball," says Ryan Winn, the CEO of Science and Technology Australia, which represents the nation's scientists.

"If we cut off curiosity and discovery, I'd hate to think of the things we lose," he tells this column.

This year the government has gone to great lengths to protect the jobs of workers in existing metals manufacturing, on national interest grounds. The Whyalla steelworks, the Mt Isa copper smelter, the Nyrstar zinc and lead smelters have all received help. Talks are underway about saving the Tomago aluminium smelter.

Just down the road from the Tomago smelter near Newcastle is the CSIRO's "Energy Centre", where researchers work on renewable energy solutions and clean technology innovation. There's been no sighting of political leaders standing in front of the building this week to defend their jobs.

Ryan Winn doesn't criticise the effort to protect smelting jobs, but he does worry Australia is ignoring the opportunities for our kids and grandkids in new, emerging, and unknown industries of the future by consistently underfunding its lead public research organisation.

The government is under pressure to find budget savings wherever it can to offset spending growth elsewhere. It plays down the impact of the CSIRO job cuts by pointing to increased university research picking up the slack, a claim contested by others in the research community.

Either way, it's clear Australia's total spending on research and development by governments, universities and business, isn't keeping up with comparable countries. As a percentage of GDP, Australia's R&D spend sits at about 1.7 per cent, well below the OECD average of 2.7 per cent and way behind top performers including the US, Israel and South Korea.

A review into R&D spending, being chaired by the global chair of Tesla, Robyn Denholm, is looking at how to boost overall investment, deliver more bang for buck, and unlock growth. The report is due by the end of the year.

CSIRO boss Doug Hilton says he's "really looking forward" to seeing the outcomes of the report. No doubt he'll be flipping straight to the section on CSIRO funding and hoping it backs his call for funding that could lead to the next Aerogard or wi-fi breakthrough.

David Speers is national political lead and host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on iview.