UTAS vice-chancellor says Antarctica is at a critical moment

Appearing before a Senate Environment and Communications References Committee hearing in Hobart on funding of the Australian Antarctic Division, University of Tasmania vice-chancellor Professor Rufus Black said the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) was a critical tool used by multiple countries and organisations to collate Antarctic data.

But he said the present model where the SOOS was funded by the state and federal governments, as well as Australian universities, was not working, with the SOOS continuing on short-term arrangements, leaving its future in limbo.

"It's a vital tool for science, it is based here in Hobart, and when it comes up for funding, we have really struggled to get it refunded so it stays here in Australia," Professor Black said.

He recounted one recent crisis where SOOS could not get its funding renewed and it asked parties in the United States to intervene with the Australian government to find a solution.

Professor Black said the continuous doubt over refunding SOOS was hitting Australia's international reputation, and that the data body could be lured away by unfriendly international actors if the funding was not secured in the long term.

"If it doesn't get refunded, then it becomes open for international bidding for others to have it ... and we have good information that the international bidding would see it leave Australia and Australia's sphere of influence," he said.

Earlier, Professor Black told the committee that the funding of Antarctic science was in crisis.

The committee inquiry was set up earlier this year, after it emerged that there the government was cutting $25 million from the Australian Antarctic Division budget.

In June, a leaked email from AAD head Emma Campbell revealed the organisation's 2023-2024 budget would be reduced by about 16 per cent, prompting the need for cost reductions, including possible cuts to contractors and other temporary and short-term roles.

Professor Black said the cuts came at a critical time for Antarctic science with observations recording the lowest summer extent of ice in February, a failure to freeze in the depths of winter, with an ice area the size of Western Australia missing.

Large stretches of coastline are now ice-free, he said.

"We needed to be back on the ice to observe these drastic changes that were occurring," he said.

The latest cuts and funding uncertainty on the Southern Ocean Observing System would make it harder for Australian scientists to collaborate with their international peers, he said.

Later, Labor Senator Catryna Bilyk denied that funding cuts had taken place.

"I think there's been a lot of scuttlebutt in regards to people implying that the budget cuts are from the Albanese government and they clearly are not," she said in a question to one witness.

AAD funding between 2022-23 and 2024-25 totalled $1.38 billion under the Albanese government, compared to planned funding over the same period of $1.21 billion by the former Morrison government, she said.

"I'm going to nag about this issue all day because there was some serious disinformation, misinformation and scuttlebutt over the fact that the Labor government had somehow cut funding."

She later asked scientists at the hearing to refer to the budget cuts as "alleged".

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