James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the opportunities for Australian businesses, especially our advanced manufacturers, in the growing Australian space industry;

(2) acknowledges that the Government has:

(a) set a goal of tripling the size of the space sector to $12 billion by 2030;

(b) established the Australian Space Agency to drive the sector forward; and

(c) recently commenced groundworks on the new Space Discovery Centre at Lot 14 in Adelaide, which will engage and educate our next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics leaders; and

(3) welcomes the Government’s opening of Supply Chain Capability Improvement grants that will enable Australian businesses to become part of the international space supply chain and have a role in NASA’s Moon to Mars mission.

It was September 2017 that Adelaide had the great privilege to host the International Astronautical Congress, and that coincided with the announcement by the coalition government by Senator Birmingham that Australia would establish a space agency. This is not the beginning of a space industry in our great nation, but this is a milestone event to have a dedicated government that is focusing on what is not only a significant existing industry but one that is only going to be more and more exponentially larger as time goes on.

It was a little over 12 months later that the announcement of where that agency would be based was made by Prime Minister Morrison. I had the pleasure in a former career before coming to this place of being heavily involved with the South Australian government's campaign to secure the Space Agency headquarters, located at the Lot Fourteen precinct in my home city of Adelaide. This is part of the broader City Deal that was announced by the Commonwealth government in partnership with the state and local government for the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site. And the Australian Space Agency, in many ways, is the jewel in the crown of that precinct, and that's saying something because there are so many other extremely exciting things happening on that campus. But, certainly, the announcement by Prime Minister Morrison that the South Australian government bid, if you like, had been successful and the agency would be based in South Australia was a great day for Adelaide and the future opportunities for space in my home city. I hasten to add though that the opportunities for space exist well beyond Adelaide, right across this great nation of ours, because the Space Agency frankly is an important government entity to regulate and encourage the development of the industry itself but it will be the industry that really provides the major economic dividend for our country into the future. There is not just the agency based at the Lot Fourteen precinct but also the Mission Control Centre and the Space Discovery Centre, which are both funded out of the $6 million allocated towards South Australia as part of a broader $20 million Commonwealth fund for space industry infrastructure. We're very grateful to have those two entities co-located with the Space Agency.

We also were successful, through a consortium led by the University of South Australia, to secure the SmartSat CRC, which is to be based in Adelaide as well. So Adelaide is the home of space, and space is the future. Of course some of the elements of space are fairly obvious to us, but others are not. In fact, it's the more traditional industries that I think will have the most significant productivity gains through space industry development, particularly in mining and agriculture frankly, two industries that have been significant in South Australia and Australia since European settlement. They have the biggest opportunities for productivity gain through a mature industry that's developing solutions to the challenges that they have into the future.

We have a strong, proud history in space development in this country. We know about the industry's association with things like the Apollo program many decades ago. It's estimated there are nearly 400 space related businesses already operating in our economy and they employ nearly 10,000 people. It's the government's ambition that, by 2030, we should be able to triple the size of the industry right across the nation. That's not just through landing someone on the moon, although we're very proud that we are investing in being part of NASA's ambitious project to explore Mars and potentially have humankind land on Mars in the future. We've announced some investment towards that, and that investment will be spent here in Australia, in assisting with the capability required for that mission. We've got a great partnership with NASA. We've also got an excellent partnership with the European Space Agency. Again, all the money that we're investing with the European Space Agency is being spent in-country, here in Australia. They are excellent partnerships that go to Europe, North America and also throughout the Asian region. We have excellent partnerships with companies in Japan and South Korea, and the list goes on. It's very exciting for the future. It's a real milestone legacy of the term of this coalition government that we've established the Space Agency, we're backing the space industry, we want to be ambitious for that sector and we want to triple it by 2030. We've got a great foundation in place led by excellent entrepreneurial companies. I'm very excited about the future and what it's going to do for my city, state and this nation.

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