More than 200 jobs being cut from CSIRO

Deref said :

I propose that we officially change our slogan from “the clever country” to “the fscking stupid country”. Truth in advertising and all that.

With these policies, I think we should change it to “the unbelievably fucking stupid country” and stop pussy-footing around.

I always find it easy to expect other people to take pay cuts. Its usually jolly to follow that up with some fatuous comment about the good of the country. As long as I dont have to lose what I have….

But… But…

Tony Abbott is the one who will cut jobs! Not the current mob.

Surely?

That’s right. Liberal are all evil, Labor are all good.

RAAAAAAARRRRRR!

davo101 said :

m@ said :

The wi-fi payout was set aside for specific projects and isolated from general revenue used to pay wages etc…

Yes, ’cause it’s magic money and I’m sure Treasury has not taken it into consideration when determining how much money to give CSIRO.

I’m not sure why you think Treasury would withhold funding allocated to CSIRO in the federal budget on the basis that some money exists in another bucket… At any rate CSIRO can’t just dip into the Science and Industry Endowment Fund to fund its operational expenses.

m@ said :

The wi-fi payout was set aside for specific projects and isolated from general revenue used to pay wages etc…

Yes, ’cause it’s magic money and I’m sure Treasury has not taken it into consideration when determining how much money to give CSIRO.

It fits in perfectly with proposals to strip funding from universities. If we abolished the CSRIO completely we could hire a lot more MBAs.

I propose that we officially change our slogan from “the clever country” to “the fscking stupid country”. Truth in advertising and all that.

The wi-fi payout was set aside for specific projects and isolated from general revenue used to pay wages etc… not sure how much of it’s been spent to date. The $1.3bn annual budget is what’s provided by government and private sector funding.

AFAICR wage increases are below inflation in the current CSIRO EA.

HiddenDragon said :

We’ve been hearing quite a bit, of late, about the wonders of economic management under Hawke and Keating -etc etc .

Where did this come from and how is it relevant to the article? Blaming the unions for seeking pay rises? In an era of 5% unemployment (much as I loved Keating, we had double that employment rate for much of the 1980s)

All govt depts have been on an efficiency dividend (4% for many). This is what happens when you have less money. Sure if you halved everyone’s salary you could keep them all employed, but its hardly a valid solution. Its not that salaries are too high, its that funding is too low.

And it drives me crazy that the Libs sit back and say ‘its deplorable that there are budget cuts to science/education/manufacturing/defence’ and whinge about any change that may increase tax revenue (mining tax, super changes) then, at the same time, jump up and down and point and shout the budget deficit.

Where did all the WIFI money go?

The CSIRO has an annual budget of about $1.3 billion

Think you’ll find it’s already been spent. Assuming that the total they got was about $500 million (the patent has now expired so they’re not getting any more) that’d cover about 5 months of operation.

We’ve been hearing quite a bit, of late, about the wonders of economic management under Hawke and Keating – it may not have been quite as fabulous as we are now being led to believe, but one element of it was a wages system which often (I believe) saw wages outcomes which were below the official inflation rate. Some workers may have felt a squeeze on their standard of living, and no doubt resented falling behind where they thought they should be, but more of them probably had jobs as a result.

When I read reports like this (increasingly common) and then see reports of wage settlements which are presented as modest, but still ahead of inflation, I wonder about the true priorities at play. On which (just to add to the provocation), I recall hearing Campbell Newman being quoted as saying that many of the much-deplored job cuts in the Queensland public sector could have been avoided if the Queensland PS unions had been prepared to accept a more modest wage outcome for the next few years. With this in mind, when I read of Katy Gallagher’s call for a pay freeze for MLAs, my thought was that it should go further – wages are only one part of the equation, but for many organisations, a very significant part.