CSIRO staff have called for Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic’s intervention to head off the destruction of more than 700 jobs in CSIRO.

In an open letter to Husic the CSIRO Staff Association said: “Our national science agency is under attack from within.

“CSIRO’s core purpose and the ability of its staff to deliver world class research are being undermined by significant restructuring and associated job losses.

“Despite our repeated efforts to highlight the critical impact of these changes, job losses continue – we are advised that at this early stage, approximately 700 jobs will be lost, and potentially with even more to come.

“Australians love and respect the CSIRO and the work we do, and we ask that you do too.”

According to the staff association jobs to be cut include:

• Approximately 400+ jobs from Enterprise Services
• 43 jobs from Health and Biosecurity (human health)
• 30 jobs from Agriculture & Food
• Five jobs from Manufacturing
• 120 jobs from Data61
• And it is rumoured that 65 jobs from Environment are set to go.

The association said cuts to health and biosecurity (human health) wee in their final stages.

CSIRO Section Secretary Susan Tonks (pictured) said: “It isn’t clear to me or the hundreds of CSIRO staff who are losing or having already lost their jobs, how these cuts will benefit our country in tackling the big issues that are ahead of us.

“The gutting of CSIRO also flies in the face of the federal government’s plans for a future made in Australia.

“Staff have written to the Minister to call for his urgent intervention and to ask him to step in to save the CSIRO from being hollowed out from within.

“The CSIRO is national treasure – it’s home to world leading science and innovation and it needs to be protected, not gutted.”

More than 600 jobs are slated to be cut and it is feared that hundreds more are headed for the same fate, as large-scale restructuring cuts core scientific research, ends long term projects and shrinks science support roles.

As a result, CSIRO is set to exit clinical trial research, leading to the closure of the clinical trial unit based at Sydney’s Westmead hospital and the complete removal of the organisation’s presence at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in Adelaide.

These cuts will also cause long-term projects to end prematurely, including further research into the development of high amylose wheat, which improves digestive health, and provides protection against bowel cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

And allergy research such as the OmnisOva programme which produces new generation allergen free, egg white products for families.

Picture: Susan Tonks