The CSIRO will shed 100 jobs

and close two major research

laboratories to absorb the first-

round of a $63million budget

cut imposed by the Federal

Government.

But the CSIRO Staff Association

has warned as many as

300 jobs both in science and

research support services

could be lost.

Agriculture has borne the

brunt of the first $15million

round of research cuts, with

the closure of Australia's

biggest livestock research laboratory

at Rockhampton in

north Queensland.

The Rendel Laboratory

which provides vital support

for Australia's $4.6billion beef

industry will close less than

two years after it received a

$3million upgrade to boost its

genetic research capability.

The CSIRO will also close its

Merbein grape and citrus

research laboratory at Mildura

in northern Victoria. The historic

laboratory, established in

1919, developed two wine

industry innovations light

mechanical pruning and

nematode tolerant grape

rootstocks that are worth an

estimated $150million a year.

Farm groups say the closures

will cripple Australia's capacity

to manage the impacts of

climate change on food production,

reducing export

earnings and undermining

regional economies.

Australian Citrus Growers

chief executive Judith Damiani

said it was disappointing to

lose the research capacity for

the industry as well as the jobs

it brought to rural towns.

CSIRO Staff Association

president Michael Borgas said

the laboratory closures would

affect 85 staff 35 in Rockhampton

and 50 at Merbein

''slaughtering'' food research

programs.

''The cuts are much bigger than we

thought they would be,'' Mr Borgas

said.

''We are back on the treadmill,

begging for our supper and trying to

convince the Government we are

worth investing in.''

Other cuts include the loss of two

CSIRO research divisions forestry

and textiles which will be merged

across five other divisions to reduce

administration costs, closure of a

newly established tropical forestry

research site at Cooroy in northern

Queensland, and the loss of the wool

scour research plant at Geelong. The

plant is the only facility that can

process alpaca fibre and cashmere.

In an email to all staff yesterday

CSIRO chief executive Geoff Garrett

said management had tried to ''focus

on reducing fixed costs and

overheads to minimise the impact

on our direct science capability and

activity''.

Research staff at Rockhampton

will be offered transfers to animal

genomics research in Brisbane or

tropical science in Townsville, but

support jobs will be lost. Wine

research will be transferred from

Mildura to Adelaide, but CSIRO will

scale back all horticultural research,

including citrus, with a view to ''a

staged exit''.

Already struggling with a level of

Government funding that has not

kept pace with inflation, CSIRO was

hit earlier this year with a

$23.6million cut from the Rudd

Government's increased efficiency

dividend, and took an additional

$40million cut in this month's federal

budget.

This means CSIRO must find

savings of $15million a year over the

next four years.

Former CSIRO divisional chief, Dr

Max Whitten, said the budget cuts

showed ''an airhead mentality''

toward science by the Rudd Government.

''Previous Labor governments

realised it was moronic to impose an

efficiency dividend on CSIRO

because of the impact on its research

capacity. They agreed to scrap it, yet

here we have a Government

imposing and increasing this so-

called efficiency dividend. It is gross

stupidity and an insult to science,''

Dr Whitten said.

Federal Science and Innovation

Minister Kim Carr said the Government

was ''fighting a war on

inflation'' and had been forced to

take tough decisions, including

applying the efficiency dividend

''across CSIRO's full range of activities''.

He

said the Rudd Government

recognised CSIRO's role as a great

Australian institution doing vital

work in the national interest ''that's

why there's a specific commitment

of $25million for CSIRO research

into clean coal and further funding

likely to come its way for solar

research''.

Greens science spokeswoman

Christine Milne said cutting research

funding ''should surely be a last

resort in fighting inflation''.

Queensland's peak farm body AgForce

is angry it wasn't consulted

over the fate of the Rockhampton

laboratory and vowed to ''do whatever

it takes'' to fight the closure.

Queensland Nationals Senator

Ron Boswell said the closure of the

world-class research facility was

''dumb'' and a blow to Queensland's

scientific research and one of its

largest industries.