Comment: Imagine if the government stopped paying train drivers

In the early days of flight MH370's disappearance the search focused on areas of ocean off the West Australian coast where authorities suspected the plane may have crashed. They asked scientists for models of ocean currents to predict where debris may have floated. Some of the most up-to-date information came from observing equipment floating in the area, part of Australia's ocean surveillance system known as the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS).

Hard to fathom: CSIRO executives are being pressed to justify their deep cuts to climate science. Credit:AIMS

Despite the value of IMOS's data to this search and rescue effort, but also to climate researchers, the fishing, oil and tourism industries and the Defence Force, a political stalemate may shut it down by June 30, leaving $35 million of ocean equipment decommissioned or abandoned in oceans.

Australia's research community has implored Tony Abbott to deliver the $150 million he promised to a group of world-class research facilities in the last federal budget, warning many facilities are preparing to close, a situation that will have "immense" consequences for the country's research effort.