This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

CSIRO research into the impact of economic development and environmental change on Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory will be scrapped in the latest round of job losses at the agency, as it reels from a $114m cut in federal funding.

Union officials say the latest cuts, which include at least four scientists in Northern Territory labs at Darwin and Alice Springs, are part of a broader decline of northern labs.

Figures compiled by the CSIRO union show that staff numbers at CSIRO’s facilities in Darwin, Alice Springs, Rockhampton, Cairns, Atherton and Townsville have dropped from around 163 people six years ago to around 66 today.

A senior scientist within CSIRO said the damage to the agency’s ability to monitor the northern Australian environment was particularly concerning coming as the federal government prepares a white paper ahead of a drive to economically develop the north.

The scientist, who asked not to be named, said the cuts would see “less work done” in areas such as forest ecophysiology, carbon research and field-based ecology. “But the Indigenous natural resources management work is the clearest example where a whole body of expertise has been cut,” he said.

This work included managing fire-management practices in the Tiwi Islands to minimise greenhouse-gas emissions, and research the potential impact of damming the Daly and Fitzroy rivers on Indigenous communities who rely on them.

“Indigenous people are key stakeholders, even just purely in terms of land ownership, and so if, for example, you’re going to be using water, you’ve got to be engaging with Indigenous communities,” he said.

“And so CSIRO has done a lot of work on understanding and quantifying … what would happen if those flow regimes change and the resource availability changed.

“We’ve lost all that capability.”

He said environmental and social monitoring was “fundamental” in light of a push by the federal government to develop agriculture, mining, energy production and tourism in northern Australia, with a white paper on the issue due early next year.

“There’s widespread expectation in the Australian community that northern development will proceed without all the environmental damage we’ve seen in the south. That it won’t just be open-slather economic development, that it’s sustainable development,” he said.

“We have to make sure that social and environmental sustainability is a core part of that development, and the sort of work that CSIRO does in the north is a crucial component [of that],” he said.

He said he was concerned that as more money to fund CSIRO research is sought privately, less funding for “public good” science would be available.

There was “no natural client” to fund research into areas such as Indigenous land management, he said. “Whereas there are clients in the mining side and agriculture for research that impacts on those industries.”

Funding for Australia’s scientific research agency was cut by $114m in the May federal budget, which the CSIRO staff association predicts will see more than 700 jobs lost.

The Northern Territory has also been hit hard by a 30% funding cut to CSIRO science education and outreach, which has seen the mothballing of the agency’s new NT science-education centre and the scrapping of all science-education programs in the Territory.

Labs on Legs, which delivers hands-on lessons using laboratory equipment in NT schools, is among the programs to stop in 2015, along with science shows at Darwin’s museum, art gallery and libraries, and professional development and support for NT science teachers.

A 2012 Naplan study showed that students in the Northern Territory were the least scientifically literate in the country.

An excerpt from the CSIRO’s “2025 Strategy Overview” discussions, obtained by Guardian Australia, suggests the agency is preparing for further site closures and layoffs as government funding dwindles.

“Maintaining our current breadth – in terms of impact and internal science capability – may result in gradual erosion of our relative and global standing,” a slide from the discussions said.

It flags a “significant reduction in property footprint to capital cities, vibrant regional sites and global precincts”, suggesting only about 20 sites will continue functioning. Currently the agency operates 54 sites across Australia.

The agency is also aiming to have one-quarter of work be “offshore-generated, funded and delivered” by 2025, up from one-tenth today.

The full impact will be known when the CSIRO releases its official decadal plan later in the year.

CSIRO management has been contacted for comment.