Senator WEST(7.02 p.m.) —I too want to join with Senator Cook in drawing attention to the report CSIRO: The case for revitalisation . We had in Senator Cook a very good minister. Since the change of government we have seen a reduction in the funding to the CSIRO. Out of this report I wanted to look specifically at rural research, particularly at Chiswick, Arding and Longford. These are properties up near Armidale.

In the report it was recommended that these not be sold. However, the government and the CSIRO have decided to do differently. There were 80 staff employed in that area. It is now down to 35. We actually had the Minister for Science and Technology (Mr McGauran) up there last week saying this was wonderful, they were saving it, but a number of those projects do not have a particularly long lifespan. I am not sure what happens to Armidale's Chiswick after that is completed.

This is a rural community in the middle of the wool growing area and in the middle of the beef industry. It is close to grain production and a wide range of other agricultural pursuits. Yet we have the government saying that reducing the scientific staff from 80 to 35 is a plus for CSIRO. It is certainly not a plus for Armidale. It is certainly not a plus for those who have been involved with CRCs and every other sort of research that goes on in the area.

There is a synergy between CSIRO, the CRCs and the University of New England. I would have thought the government would have been looking at ways to maximise that synergy to provide for the employment of people in rural areas because CSIRO has such a significant contribution to make in the area of rural production and rural research, but that does not appear to be the case. It is becoming easier and easier these days to actually site institutions in rural areas because with the advent of improved technology, improved telecommunications and the like, communication is not a problem and the transfer of information and material between the various institutions of the organisation also is not a problem.

In relation to this reduction and sale, I am concerned that a lot of the money that has gone into the development of these sites has actually come from the wool growers through Wool International. I wonder legally just how many of those sites are owned fully by CSIRO and how many might well be said to be owned by the wool industry. They are very concerned about that.

The newspapers of the area in the last number of weeks have certainly been raising the concerns, the concerns of the mayor of Armidale and the mayor of Dumeresq. They have every right to be concerned because they are seeing the bleeding by this government of the intellectual base from their area. There is nowhere else in the region that scientists can hope to get a job, that the 40-odd who have been given redundancies can hope to get similar employment. The university may be able to take one or two. The state government's vet labs may be able to take one or two, but that leaves the rest. What are they going to do? We are going to see a continuation of the brain drain from rural Australia, in this case rural New South Wales.

What it costs people to sell their houses in Armidale is nowhere near the replacement cost of housing the people will have to buy. If they move to get a job in science, they are likely to move to a capital city. So they are going to be discriminated against and have hardship placed upon them in the purely physical sense of having to sell their house for a value that is less than an equivalent house in a capital city or a much larger centre that they will be forced to move to.

We also have to ask: what is going to happen to the schools and to the communities? When you lose 45 people, if they move from the area, you lose 45 families. There is the multiplier effect in employment, spending and the schools and institutions in the community. Presumably a number of the spouses also have employment in the area, so what is going to be the impact?

As I said, we are seeing this government cause a brain drain from the rural areas of Australia, especially New South Wales in this case, to the cities. This is the government that is supposed to be concerned about rural areas. From talking to the people in the region—many of them are National Party voters and card-carrying members of the National Party—I have found that they are very angry about this because they feel that they have been let down by their party and by their government. That is something that people need to be very conscious of.

I repeat: these are areas that have been doing research that is of high value to the farming communities and the grazing communities. The amount of money that they are receiving from the private sector, from external sources, is very high. It is above the amount set by the board of CSIRO. They have done everything they can to provide a high level scientific research service. It is a research service that has operated in very close cooperation with the industry. A number of extremely good projects are being run. It would be very sad to see these not continue or not receive extensions to their time when the current funding levels are completed.

It behoves the government to look very carefully at this issue, but they are not going to. Whilst they stood up on budget night and said that they had increased funding to the CSIRO, when you actually took into account the efficiency dividends across the board and several other cuts, they are receiving less money.

This government is determined to reduce the scientific work that is carried out in this country. It is not only going to lead to a brain drain out of the rural areas but it is also going to lead to a brain drain as scientists will have to leave Australia to find gainful work and continue to undertake their extremely important research work. I urge the government to think very carefully about this. This appears to be just another example of the attitude that farmers are beginning to think this government has of not caring about the future of agriculture in this country. They think they are more interested in other pursuits and other forms of income revenue and sources of revenue.

I leave it there by repeating that this is of major concern to the people in the Armidale and New England regions of New South Wales, as I am sure it is to the farming communities and the woolgrowers and the beef producers right across this country.

Question resolved in the affirmative.