CSIRO executives are being accused of claiming credit for achievements of a science unit it has recently axed and for possibly misleading senators over plans for a key climate monitoring site of global renown. The organisation last week trumpeted its contribution to the discovery of gravitational waves - predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein and now detected for the first time. 
In a media release hailing "Aussie innovation" on Friday, CSIRO cited its key role - while omitting the fact it had made the researchers involved redundant last year.
"The coatings [on the mirrors], which were developed and applied at CSIRO, are among the most uniform and precise ever made," Cathy Foley, science director of CSIRO manufacturing, said. "We really are world leaders in this area."
Chris Walsh, a former manager of the research team and now with Sydney University, said the CSIRO's crowing was "pretty bald-faced" given the program "had been run into the ground" and disbanded.
"They are certainly right to claim credit," Dr Walsh said.
"But in the future, [CSIRO] will have no capacity to play a role."
Fairfax Media sought comment from CSIRO and Science Minister Christopher Pyne.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten linked the abandonment of the optics research to the current CSIRO plan to slash another 350 staff, including half those in climate modelling and monitoring.
"[Prime Minister] Malcolm Turnbull is happy to use the CSIRO for a photo-op but his cuts are vandalising a great Australian institution," Mr Shorten said.
"Australia cannot compete for the jobs of the future and for innovation with the rest of the world when we have a government that is recklessly sacking 350 scientists."
Labor and Greens senators also said chief executive Larry Marshall and senior executives may have misled a Senate estimates hearing last Thursday over a range of issues from the timing of the board's knowledge of the cuts to the future of critical climate programs. "No doubt there was an attempt to obscure the truth," Senator Kim Carr, shadow industry minister, said.
An email leaked to Fairfax Media shows the key climate monitoring site at Cape Grim on Tasmania's north-west - one of three key locations globally - had had its CSIRO funding cut by more than 80 per cent this financial year.
Executive, Alex Wonhas, told the hearing CSIRO's funding this financial year for Cape Grim would be $226,246 and the Bureau of Meteorology would chip in $458,500.
The installation would not shut down, he said. CSIRO executives did not reveal that CSIRO had contributed $1.5 million the year before - as revealed in the   February 8 email.
"Cape Grim is an important project through which CSIRO delivers international impact by the ongoing monitoring of greenhouse gases," a spokesman said on Sunday.
"Funding is negotiated annually with the BoM depending on research activity, priorities and needs," he said.
It's understood that the $226,246 figure is only intended for maintenance of the site.
The laboratory in Victoria that analyses the gas for its changing components is not funded, and will come under severe pressure given the current plan to cut staff.