JULY 2003
Pockley's Razor: Marine Science at Sea

Weird things are emerging from the May Budget and announcements of yet more reviews of science funding. These triggered a dramatic session of the Senate Estimates Committee during the Budget session of Parliament.

Once again, the organisation and funding of marine science became a hot issue. The most dramatic revelation was that CSIRO, which had been forced by government demands for asset sales to dispose of one of its two research vessels, the RV Franklin (AS, August 2002, p.4), has sold it for a considerable loss.

Labor’s science spokesman, Senator Kim Carr, tabled a leaked email that Chief Executive Dr Geoff Garrett had sent to senior staff prior to an “urgent hookup”. He wrote:

Ted [Cain, Board Secretary] and Ron [Sandland, Deputy CE] are waving, rightly so, a BIG political flag. Politically, we might be better off to donate the ship, in the spirit of great collaborators, to the new world-class JCU/AIMS ‘amalgam’ [between James Cook University and the Australian Institute for Marine Science]. Or at least put it on blocks to minimize operational costs until we have a serious buyer or other uses emerge, e.g. even associated with the [Oceans] Wealth Promotions Flagship.

It emerged that the Franklin’s book value was $9 million when the CSIRO Board first approved the sale. By this year its market value was assessed at $4.8-7.7 million. Now it has been sold for $1.3 million, a substantial loss not only to CSIRO’s books but also to the nation’s capacity in marine research. Its re-use, at minor cost, as a facility of the Flagship could have been a face-saver.

The leaking of this confidential matter must have Garrett feeling his back within CSIRO and with the ministers and departmental officers who ultimately control him.

CSIRO copped a battering on other matters, but prior questioning of AIMS Director, Prof Stephen Hall, was also revealing. While Garrett was surrounded by a platoon of staff, Hall sat alone as he was prompted to reveal that, like CSIRO, AIMS had lost its bid for triennial funding starting in 2003-04.

Hall said he was unaware of this and only knew of rumours of the government’s decision to link AIMS formally with JCU when he saw the Budget on its delivery. AIMS Chairman Norbury Rogers had written to Science Minister Peter McGauran seeking clarification about 6 weeks previously, but Hall said AIMS was “unaware” of the JCU link until Budget day.

Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) officials later said that all science agencies had been advised of budgets ahead of the Treasurer’s speech (Garrett issued his media statement 4 minutes after the embargo), and tried to defend Hall’s position by claiming he was not distinguishing between informal and formal advice.

In a post-Budget statement McGauran described “AIMS at JCU” as a “formal affiliation of the two organisations” that will “maintain their independence”. He said it “will be supported through additional funding of $5 million for AIMS in the 2003-04 Budget”.

Carr asserts it is a tacit merger and uncovered that the money (obtained by raiding the budget for Cooperative Research Centres) is really made up of $2.1 million for the final costs of refurbishing AIMS’ labs (approved 2 years ago) and $2.9 million, for which no details have been provided. DEST officers were unable to add anything and indicated that the decision was entirely political.

CSIRO Hit Hard

The email read by Carr told of “senate estimates rehearsal time in the afternoon”, showing how seriously Garrett takes his preparation for a predictable grilling by Carr. He revealed that, in the bid for triennial funding rejected by the government, “we were looking at $120 million over the triennium - $30 million, $40 million and $50 million [in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06]. The majority of that is associated with Flagships.”

Instead, they got a one-off grant of $20 million for the Flagships in 2003-04, leaving CSIRO staff in grave uncertainty. Garrett now has insufficient funds to support the six Flagships that have been announced (two more are on the way) and admitted that the 10% annually for 4 years he is creaming off the 20 specialist Divisions for Flagships is now insufficient.

In Garrett-speak, he acknowledged he will cut more from existing research programs: “We will be coming back on certain areas which are of lower priority and less critical mass in order to refocus our activities”.

On that day the financial press was full of stories about the imminent collapse of the Australian Magnesium Corporation (AMC) with debts of $500 million. CSIRO had an agreement with AMC following a loan from government of $75 million to enable use of its R&D. In return it expected royalties up to that sum (AS, June 2003, pp.23-26). While CSIRO claims the government will back any unpaid loan, it now faces no income.

It is a massive threat as the Light Metals Flagship we described last month was predicting economic benefit of $10 billion over 10 years. Magnesium research is the largest of the three metals in the portfolio, has the closest industrial alliance and is closest to realising returns. Garrett claimed: “We will be proceeding with our light metals flagship”. Even if AMC survives this latest of several crises, it and CSIRO will live on a knife-edge.

Garrett also accepted, under pressure, that Dr Graham Harris has resigned as chair of the Flagships, as forecast in Australasian Science, and has been moved to an undefined post. In Garrett-speak: “Dr Harris had a particular view on the organisation arrangements, which we discussed. He was part of the team. We went into a different space.”

Unlike Hall of AIMS, CSIRO’s Chief Executive said he was advised of the contents of their budget “a couple of weeks before”. Garrett also acknowledged he “was aware several weeks before that” through discussions with “my minister, Dr Nelson”, of the government’s announcement in the Budget of a review of the funding of CSIRO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and AIMS with a view to collaborating more closely with universities.

Carr sees this review as a means to place these agencies’ research funding into the competitive pool that universities now have through the Australian Research Council. Carr said he opposes this while wanting more block funding for CSIRO.

Carr threw a bull terrier into the ring by stating advice he received (source unstated) that the President of the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee, Prof Deryck Schreuder, “has put it to the science minister in the last week that he has 30 Vice-Chancellors ready to sign a statement that the universities should get access to CSIRO monies”. Both Garrett and the Secretary of DEST claimed to know nothing about such a threat to CSIRO’s continuance.

Ignorance a Prerequisite

CSIRO has advertised for a Director of Communications to replace Di Jay, who left under a cloud in January. With only a fortnight to apply, CSIRO sought an “outstanding communications professional [to] play a critical role in implementing CSIRO’s plan to build a dynamic and growing organization”.

The first qualification cited is “a strong network of contacts within government”. The appointee, who will construct “integrated communications and relationship strategies”, is not required to have a deep understanding of the content and purpose of CSIRO. Applicants need know nothing about science or to know any researchers. They are being screened through headhunters with no track record in science.

Another spin doctor with smooth management-speak?

Peter Pockley