Te Papa mollusc expert axed in restructure gets extra six months
Friday, 1 March 2019
Axed Te Papa molluscs guru Bruce Marshall has been given six months' reprieve, but restructure critics say the move does nothing to quell their wider concerns.
On Friday Te Papa said it would keep Marshall on for six months, to allow him to complete a book project and mentor new talent. Marshall and fish expert Andrew Stewart were made redundant, subject to appeal, as part of the museum's controversial restructure.
Giant squid researcher Steve O'Shea was so appalled by plans to remove Marshall, who had been a mentor and 'constant inspiration', he wrote to Te Papa asking it to remove any reference to him in the museum's colossal squid display.
'Bruce is not broken, but the system into which he has been assimilated clearly is,' he wrote. 'You should be celebrating his research excellence; you should be honouring him … Making such intellectual genius redundant makes no sense, and identifies a problem with museum strategy.'
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O'Shea said while an extra six months was better than nothing, it was a carrot dangled while holding a gun to Marshall's head, and did not change his 'thorough disillusionment' with Te Papa. He has set up a petition calling for a moratorium on staff restructuring at the museum.
'He's still out of a job in six months' time, and that was not what we wanted. That's not what science needs … Bruce is better off today than he was yesterday, but other scientists at Te Papa will face similar restructuring in the future, and we must stop this… I don't believe Te Papa management are acting in the best interests of science in New Zealand, or in the best interests of their staff. I believe they're acting largely in ignorance.'
Restructure critic Nic Rawlence, a lecturer in ancient DNA at Otago University, said while the extra six months was good for Marshall, a 3-year phased retirement would have been better. The reprieve seemed like 'hush money' and a knee-jerk reaction to bad publicity.
'I find it immensely ironic…They're saying 'You are not good enough for any job at Te Papa, but you are good enough for six more months'.'
It also did nothing to dim Rawlence's concerns about the impact of the restructure's loss of expertise on Te Papa's ability to safeguard its collections.
Thirty international fish experts this week added their voices to the chorus of criticism, saying the restructure was 'unwise' and would cause 'unavoidable decline' in the museum's world-class fish collection. A final decision on Andrew Stewart's fate was due this week, but Te Papa now says there is no fixed decision date.
Critics have emphasised the importance of Stewart's and Marshall's experience in taxonomy – identifying, describing and naming New Zealand's flora and fauna, which underpins everything from identifying biosecurity pests to understanding relationships between different organisms.
Te Papa argues the restructure modernises its curation structure and creates a career pathway for new scientists, in line with a 2015 Royal Society review which highlighted concerns about a lack of succession plans in taxonomy.
However, that report also found taxonomists were an endangered species, and expertise took 10-15 years to build up.