Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I do acknowledge that Woomera, which is in his electorate of Grey, is where Australia launched its first satellite from just over 50 years ago—52 years ago, in fact. So I do thank him for his question and acknowledge the long relationship that Australia has had with the space sector.

Clearly, the moon landing was such a significant moment, not just for Australia and the United States but around the world. It was responsible for inspiring so many people, and many of us have our own stories to tell. I too watched the moon landing. I sat there with my sister, and we both watched the first steps of Neil Armstrong on the moon. And can I say, as an engineer now, that not only did I want to be on that spaceship; I wanted to build it. So it inspired not only me but many other people to go on and study science, technology, engineering and maths, and we know how important that is for the jobs of the future.

In Australia, we already have a fair-sized space industry. It's worth about $3.9 billion to the Australian economy and employs about 10,000 people. The coalition government is committed to growing the space industry in Australia to $12 billion and an additional 20,000 jobs by 2030.

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