CSIRO job cuts cause industry concern

Planned CSIRO job cuts are causing concern among industry organisations, with Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) calling for the Australian Government to ensure there is no impact on the climate modelling and projections from the organisation.

FCA said Australians should be proud of Australia’s contributions to the global understanding of climate science and that farmers rely on modelling and projections for critical farm management decisions.

“We need more data — not less — on the impacts of climate change and it seems insane that Australia’s peak research body would contemplate cutting resources from such a critical area of work. We need solid assurance that the slated changes don’t risk jeopardising the integrity and quality of our climate science,” said FCA Acting CEO Verity Morgan-Schmidt.

“It’s especially important for farmers who are already dealing with lost agricultural productivity due in part to a changing climate. If there is a reduction in information available to farmers as a result of the outlined changes, how can they be expected to keep farming productively?

“This data and service is too important to be at the whims of staffing and funding cuts. We welcomed the federal government’s recent additional funding of $387.4m into CSIRO and I call on the federal government to ensure that Australian farmers can rely on the CSIRO to continue to do this vital work.”

CSIRO announced in November 2025 that it needs to cut 350 full-time roles, a move which the agency said is “to support the long-term sustainability of the organisation”. It is still unclear exactly which roles are on the chopping block; however, it has been speculated that they will be within the team working on the national climate model.

Image caption: The CSIRO Research Facility in Hobart, Tasmania. Credit: iStock.com/mtcurado