Lucy Stewart, spokesperson for the Save Science Coalition, says the government’s “ill-considered” cuts will damage the country’s ability to drive new economic opportunities and manage environmental challenges.

“The public science system in Aotearoa New Zealand is facing a crisis triggered by reckless and rushed government spending cuts without any real, considered understanding of its long-term impacts.”

This week the Save Science Coalition released Science under threat, a report which provides for the first time a full picture of the Government’s spending cuts, and the scientific community’s perspective on the effect they will have on New Zealand’s science and research system.

Stewart says the cuts have “throttled” vital work, including research into climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“The public science system in Aotearoa New Zealand is facing a crisis triggered by reckless and rushed government spending cuts without any real, considered understanding of its long-term impacts.”

The Save Science Coalition is a grouping of 23 unions and scientific societies, with a common interest in the science and research system in New Zealand.

“Our report lays bare the long-term damage the Government is inflicting on the sector. While underinvestment in science has been a long-term problem in New Zealand, the current Government has reduced funding further, and caused workers in science to move overseas to find work – a trend that will take decades to reverse,” Stewart says.

“The Government promised evidence-based decisions yet is ploughing ahead with these cuts in the complete absence of a science strategy. All of the cuts detailed in the report have occurred before Sir Peter Gluckman’s Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) has reached any conclusions about a path forward for the science sector. Making cuts now only exacerbates existing problems that the SSAG is looking into.

“Any changes the group recommends, let alone new funding, will not be available until well after these losses have begun to occur.

“Any new funding will not represent genuine investment in the sector until it has made up for the effective funding cuts (particularly the loss of the National Science Challenges) that have already occurred.”

Stewart says the government isn’t ‘walking the talk’ about driving better economic outcomes. “The strongest economies in the world are those that invest in science and research with a firm eye on the long term pay-off and not invest less which seems the Government’s current plan.

“Make no mistake, right now Aotearoa’s science is under threat like never before. We risk losing our best and brightest scientists and researchers to other countries that really value them, and that will set us back for years.”

Current Save Science Coalition members are: New Zealand Association of Scientists, Public Service Association, Te Pūkenga, Here Tikanga Mahi, Tertiary Education Union, Academic Freedom Aotearoa, NZ Society of Endocrinology, NZ Ecological Society, Council of Trade Unions, Physiological Society of New Zealand, New Zealand Institute of Forestry, New Zealand Geoscience Society, Aviation and Marine Engineers Association, New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, NZEI Te Riu Roa, Te Manatōpū Mātai Koiora Moroiti – The New Zealand Microbiological Society, New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society – Ngā Kohinga Wai o Aotearoa, Genomics for Aotearoa New Zealand, Entomological Society of New Zealand, Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand, France Aotearoa Science Technology and !nnovation (FAST!), New Zealand Society of Plant Biologists, Association for Women in the Sciences, New Zealand Marine Sciences Society, New Zealand Plant Protection Society.