The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) recently went through a large number of job cuts, of which Bill Shorten objects to. He told reporters, “There is no country that ever cut the scientific budget and improved the country.” Following the cuts, he is calling on his local government in Australia to attempt to reverse as many job cuts as possible and work to restructure the CSIRO organization, according to The Guardian.


There has been a restructuring of CSIRO, which has also been approved by the Community and Public Sector Union. Much of the staff of the scientific organization is being structured differently as of July 2014, and may total 3,000 jobs lost. The staff was caught quite off guard when they received the news, and Shorten in particular, believes this to be a major disservice to their country, due to the importance of scientific research and associated projects.


Tony Abbott, head of the organization, is the one who approved the job cuts, saying it was going to occur after finalizing an internal review of jobs and the current staff. Shorten finds it to be startling and that there will be negative consequences. He want on to say “The revelation the government is cutting 1,600 jobs from Australia’s pre-eminent science organization, the CSIRO, is deeply disturbing.”


The organization has 1,600 scientific support staff, and after this department’s cuts, they believe it will bring this number down to about 300. Shorten believes even smaller nations require great scientific resources, and by ignoring it and losing this important support staff, they will suffer. He is greatly opposed and believes they should reverse the cuts immediately.


This upcoming week management at CSIRO will meet to decide where the job losses will occur. They are already aware of the dissatisfaction of staff who may or may not be losing their job, with staff claiming their organization is a bureaucracy. The 22 divisions of the CSIRO are going to be reduced to just nine divisions, with some staff being reassigned, and others losing their positions.


The support staff is taking the biggest hit, but not the only employees who are facing job loss. There will also be research teams, executive teams, enterprise support teams, and divisional support teams facing job cuts. The conditions and needs of the staff, especially with the quantity of employees and their functions, is being reviewed. Changes and restructuring is to occur in the next few months, though even by July, all of the probably job cuts might not be completed. CSIRO also claims they will help with job resources for those that do lose their jobs.


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