8:48 am today

Scientists' association worries Crown Research Institutes reform will lead to more job cuts

8:48 am today
Researcher analyzing agricultural grains and legumes in the laboratory. GMO research of cereals. Testing of  genetically modified seeds

The government also announced that the ban on gene technology would be removed. Photo: 123rf

The New Zealand Association of Scientists co-president says she does not want to see major job losses through the government's science reforms.

The country's seven Crown Research Institutes will be merged into three entities, and Callaghan Innovation will be disestablished.

The ban on gene technology will also be removed.

The changes come after consideration of the long-awaited Science System Advisory Group's (SSAG) first report by Sir Peter Gluckman.

Dr Lucy Stewart told Morning Report it was a very well-considered, thoughtful report but the government has cherry-picked those things in the report that best align with their existing agenda and ignored many other recommendations.

Merging the CRIs was a good idea in principle, but it was disappointing that other report recommendations had been "left by the wayside", she said.

Stewart said she was concerned about the changes impact on the actual scientists.

"People are already being told 'oh you know you don't have to worry, no jobs are going to be lost, we've seen massive restructures through the CRIs (Crown Research Institutes) over the last few years, hundreds of jobs have already been lost.

"So we want to see a real commitment to actually preserving you know the core human asset that make up our science system, our science system is people and just saying we'll merge some organisations and that's going to create efficiency is one thing - a commitment to actually preserving the people who do the work which is the only reason you have a science system - that's quite another."

How to manage the changes did not seem to be well-considered and ahead of the latest announcement GNS Science had just got rid of a number of scientists, she said.

Sir Peter's report is very clear that the workforce is the science system and that maintaining the current workforce should be prioritised, she said.

Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins told Morning Report at the end of the 22/23 financial year there were about 4100 full time scientists at Crown institutes.

"It's now at 3895 as at October last year - that's a drop of 205 or 5 percent."

Over the last three years a lot of scientists had also started working for businesses - an increase of 30 percent, she said.

Removal of gene technology ban

Stewart said broadly speaking scientists were supportive of removing the ban on gene technology, particularly those who worked in that area.

"I know many of them have been very frustrated for a very long time that they're doing this great work and because of our very restrictive laws it can't progress further within Aotearoa / New Zealand and they will hopefully now have that opportunity."

The ban was a considered decision that was put in place 20-odd to determine what was happening in the area, she said.

But there was now a lot New Zealand was missing out on by having a total ban, she said.

"It's clear we need to do a lot of work to socialise that [the ban's removal] with the wider public and help people understand how the technology has developed over 20 years."

The government now needed to commit to do that work, she said.

"It's one thing to say 'oh well we'll just open the floodgates and everything will be great', we do actually need to explain to the public why that is and how it's going to work."

Collins said the ban had held back New Zealand scientists in work such as improving the environment, people's health and in terms of productivity for things like drought resistant grasses.

"All this work has been going on in labs in New Zealand and not allowed even in many cases for field trials, but also that work so much of it has gone to Australia or the US or the UK."

That meant that those countries had been benefiting from the work of New Zealand scientists, she said.

PM's chief science advisor role

Stewart said the position of the prime minister's chief science advisor seemed to have disappeared although there had been no government announcement that this was the case.

The position was not mentioned in the government's announcement yesterday, she said.

"I think at this point we have to assume the role is gone, we know the funding has been ended, we know the office has been wound up, the staff have been let go."

It was the prime minister's role to appoint the PM's chief science advisor, she said.

The prime minister had been very clear that he would be appointing that person, Collins said.

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