Australia’s new state-of-the-art marine research vessel is being wasted because it is only funded for half of the year, scientists claim, as the government looks to private sources of finance to get the ship to sea.

The $120m vessel, Investigator, is a 94-metre research facility capable of carrying 40 scientists and support staff and spending 300 days a year at sea undertaking atmospheric, oceanographic, biological and geoscience work.

However, the vessel, which was commissioned by the CSIRO and completed in 2014, only has funding for 180 days a year at sea. This means that it will spend roughly six months of the year stationary at dock in Hobart.

Despite only completing its first sea trials in March, the Investigator has already made the notable discovery of a cluster of four 50 million-year-old volcanoes off the coast of Sydney.

Investigator has advanced sonar equipment that can make 3D maps of the sea floor at any depth and is one of just four vessels in the world fitted with weather radar to gauge atmospheric conditions.

A spokeswoman for Ian Macfarlane, the industry and science minister, blamed the previous Labor government for the funding shortfall and said that commercial opportunities could be used to bridge the gap.



“The previous Labor government left absolutely no money in the budget to operate the RV Investigator once it reached Australia,” she said.

“CSIRO is currently exploring opportunities to utilise an additional 120 days of sea time. These opportunities include charters by research agencies or universities in partnership with industry, and possibly commercial charters.”

Scientists have been left frustrated by the abbreviated operation of Investigator, pointing out that important research work is being missed out on.

“It’s just daft, it’s a false economy,” said Richard Arculus, a geologist at Australian National University. Arculus will be on Investigator to research underwater volcanoes near Heard island in January.

“It’s like a buying a car and then deciding to not drive it. You may save in fuel but the depreciation cost will mean that your net savings are trivial.

“Also, you’re either in the commercial world or you’re in the academic world. If we are to turn into commercial agents, we are essentially subsidising the private sector to keep it running. The staffing and dock costs are ongoing and they are being paid for by the taxpayer.”’

Prof Iain Suthers, who led the team that discovered the volcanoes off Sydney, said: “It’s frustrating because this is a vessel that Australia has been crying out for for decades. To get it operational, it would only require a marginal increase in funding.”

The previous Labor government allocated $120m for the Investigator in 2009. In the 2013 budget, the Coalition set aside $12.1m to conduct sea trials, but year-round funding for the vessel was not provided.

Kim Carr, Labor’s science spokesman, said Labor set aside money for the first year of Investigator’s operation and that an extra $7.1m was required for it to be at sea for 300 days a year.

“You wouldn’t think that was such a huge amount but this government doesn’t understand the importance of scientific research, it doesn’t understand you can’t turn it on and off like a tap,” he said.

“To have a vessel of this quality produced and not use it is incredibly short-sighted. It disturbs me that the government doesn’t understand its importance when we are such a large maritime nation.”