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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-03-23 Daily Xml
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Climate Change

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change. Could the minister inform the chamber about the significance of the CSIRO's climate data and how it is being used to help South Australian businesses and the community prepare for the impacts of global warming?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:48): I thank the honourable member for her most important question. Today, 23 March, is World Meteorological Day, and this provides us with an opportunity to stop and reflect on the fact that each of the past several decades has been significantly warmer than the previous one. The period 2011 to 2015 was the hottest on record, and the year 2015 was the hottest since modern observations began in the late 1800s. This is from the World Meteorological Organization's website. The year 2016 is shaping up to break even more records, unfortunately, with the maximum temperature for the first four days of March at least 4º Celsius above average and 8º to 12º above average for most of south-eastern Australia, as reported in the Canberra Times this month.

Having access to up-to-date and reliable climate data is imperative if we are to meet the challenges and opportunities for our changing climate. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) undertakes vital research to help us understand how climate is changing and the risk this poses, specifically for our country and our agricultural and industrial sectors, but also for health sectors too. It provides world-class expertise in many areas of climate science, including climate modelling and climate projections, sea level rise and ocean acidification, extreme weather events and the regional climate impacts on agriculture and certainly water.

This data is highly applicable in very real situations and is regularly used to inform investment decisions in this country. For example, the latest CSIRO sea level science was used to design the new runway at Brisbane airport which is located, I am advised, on low-lying sites near Moreton Bay. In South Australia, we apply this data to a range of areas like coastal monitoring, water allocation planning, NRM planning, and fire and hazard management, and CSIRO data has been vital in developing our internationally recognised regional adaptation plans and sector agreements that are helping the regions identify sustainable industries and infrastructure into the future.

SA Water uses CSIRO data to help plan water storage solutions for coming years and health services look to the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology when planning how to respond to the impacts of increased heatwaves on the more vulnerable people in our community. Access to detailed forecast information is fundamental to the state's fire operations during the fire danger season and the prescribed burning season in particular.

These are some of our most essential services and they are better able to serve the South Australian public thanks to this CSIRO data, but it may soon become much harder for us to do this. The federal government has made $110 million cuts to the CSIRO. This is the prime minister who is spending how many millions of dollars putting posters up on bus stops telling us that as a nation we need to innovate and here he is sacking the innovators. How short-sighted is that?

Following the federal government's $110 million cuts to the CSIRO, its chief executive officer has announced massive cuts to the organisation's climate research capacity. Through Senate hearings—and I am not a big fan of some of these Senate hearings—we have learnt that, under the Turnbull government, these highly skilled Australian jobs are going to be shipped off to the United Kingdom. They are going to outsource jobs that were done by Australian scientists in the CSIRO to the Bureau of Meteorology in Great Britain.

That is the Turnbull government's idea of innovation—ship our jobs offshore for our key pivotal climate scientists and buy in those services instead from Great Britain. It is a lovely country and I am sure they have great scientists, but where is the foresight in sacking Australian scientists so you can spend money buying the same services from the Bureau of Meteorology in the United Kingdom? That is the Liberal plan for innovation. That is their great idea of how you actually address issues of climate science—you sack your scientists. That is the Turnbull government's plan for addressing climate change—sack the scientists.

As I say, these Senate hearings have also unveiled, as detailed in TheSydney Morning Herald, that:

One of the CSIRO's main climate science units planned to slash four out of five researchers, all but eliminating its monitoring and climate modelling research, a new document reveals.

That is a quote from today's Sydney Morning Herald. Four out of five researchers are planned to be sacked.

The cuts are contained in an analysis for the Oceans & Atmosphere division, dated January 25, 2016. CSIRO handed over the document to the Senate committee investigating plans to slash 350 staff overall, and it has been made public on the Senate's website.

These figures are from internal CSIRO documents that were produced from the Senate. The Sydney Morning Herald article goes on further:

The new document, though, highlights the extent of the original cuts being considered by the CSIRO before pressure—including from thousands of international scientists—prompted a scaling back of the job losses.

The Earth System Assessment Unit—which includes the climate models used by the Bureau of Meteorology and the team analysing greenhouse and other gases at Tasmania's Cape Grim research station—was to have its 81-strong staff slashed to 16, the analysis shows.

The remaining tally included as many as six post-doctoral researchers, and would have left just the aerosols and air-quality teams, Fairfax Media has been told.

The Oceans & Climate Dynamics unit, which includes sea-level research and ocean observations, was to lose 31 of its 71 staff, the document shows.

We are an island country, we are an island continent, and the Turnbull government is going to sack 31 of the 71 staff in the area of ocean observations and sea level research. Where is the scientific innovation there? Where is the Turnbull government's plan for innovation? Sack your scientists—that's all they can do.

If these cuts go ahead, it will be an enormous blow to Australia's ability to understand, respond to and plan for a changing climate and make wise investment decisions in light of these changes. Governments, farmers and businesses all rely on this information to make very important decisions about the work that they do, and this is well illustrated in an article published in the Guardian on 9 February, in which a dairy farmer explained how essential CSIRO data was in preparing for an extended dry period.

This particular farmer was able to survive because the data allowed them to make some tactical decisions such as early spring planting to make use of existing moisture in the soil, and budgeting for extra food to see them through the predicted dry summer. The farmer states in this article, 'We knew we were stuffed early enough to do something about it, thanks to the CSIRO.' But for farmers and businesses around the country, the very serious question they face now is this: how common will this type of season be into the future, and how will they be able to adequately plan, let alone survive, if the cuts to the CSIRO's climate and land and water divisions go ahead?

These cuts to the CSIRO will not only have significant implications for the global climate research communities. In a very practical sense, they will diminish the ability of Australian farmers, our businesses and our communities to understand and prepare for the future and make wise investment decisions. To put it another way, as the article from the Sydney Morning Herald says:

'It's a pretty bad deal—you cut about 110 staff all together and you recover almost nothing,' one senior scientist told Fairfax Media. 'You also ruin the reputation [of CSIRO]…

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Point of order: the minister has been on his feet on this question for over eight minutes, and I would ask you to call him to conclude his answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Minister, can you—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Leader of the Government, I expect more from you and also from the Leader of the Opposition. Minister, continue your answer, but—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Yes. Minister, sit down. Can you get through your answer as quickly as possible?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Mr President, I was going to, but the honourable member, through his interjection, invites me to put some more on the record and I will. Dr Marshall, of course, is expected to be grilled on the document when he fronts the Senate committee now planned for 7 April. As we move into what is likely to be another record-breaking hot year—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! If you are all silent, the minister will get through his answer much quicker, so you can only blame yourselves if it takes time. Minister, continue on.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: As we move into what is likely to be another record-breaking hot year, this makes a total mockery of Prime Minister Turnbull's so-called 'innovation agenda'. I just refer to another article quickly, in the Sydney Morning Herald again, 8 March:

CSIRO looks to Britain to outsource climate research

CSIRO is considering outsourcing climate modelling work to Britain—a step a senior executive conceded would reduce Australia's strengths in the field.

Grilled by Labor—

I have to say it—

and Greens senators at a Senate inquiry in Hobart over cuts to up to half its climate research workforce, CSIRO executive Alex Wonhas said the organisation was considering contracting some work to counterparts in the British Met Office.

'I don't think that I can credibly claim that everything [we are doing now] will continue,' Dr Wonhas said. 'There will be a reduction in our activity.'

It is understood CSIRO executives hope signing a contract with leaders in international climate change research at the Met Office will blunt international criticism of its climate research cuts.

How clever do you have to be to put aside some of the international criticism about you sacking scientists and think they may be placated by the fact you are actually going to buy some scientists from the UK? Sack Australian scientists, buy it in from the UK—that's the Liberal plan for job creation in Australia. No wonder they will soon be out of office!

The PRESIDENT: A supplementary, the Hon. Mr Brokenshire.

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