Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—As the deputy chair of the committee, I want to take a few moments on the tabling of this report to make a few comments. Our chair gave a comprehensive and excellent coverage of what the committee heard in the evidence it took. The report and the 38 recommendations have been well covered. It was quite challenging, because this is a fast-moving industry sector. As we took evidence, we read in the media, almost on a daily basis, about further progress and developments that had occurred. This meant that some of the evidence we'd taken maybe only a week before had become outdated. So, as the chair outlined, it was a challenge beyond the challenges of the COVID restrictions. So I wanted to say a particular thank you to not only all who gave us submissions in evidence but also those who we had to call back to give us updates because of the speed at which things were developing. I particularly want to acknowledge the Australian Space Agency, who worked so well to provide support to this inquiry. It's head, Enrico Palermo, was appointed during the period of the inquiry, which is just an indication of how things were changing.

As the chair said, it is an enormous opportunity sector. I think we were particularly interested and excited by the fact that we so often think of what is described as the 'from Earth space industry'—that is, the launching of rockets and their cargo satellites and so forth. But Australia already plays a significant role in what they call the 'from space sector', and Australia is really well positioned to develop new industries. The from space sector involves the gathering of imagery and data that can then be translated into really useful applications such as in the agriculture sector, the infrastructure sector and the environment sector in really fantastic ways that could create businesses and job opportunities in this country.

There is tremendous opportunity. As the chair indicated—and I suspect 38 recommendations indicate—there is a lot more that we could be doing as a federal government and a federal parliament to foster and support the industry. I want to thank the chair, the member for Cowper. He came into this right towards the end, although he had been a very active member of the committee through the entire inquiry. He stepped up for this final process of putting the report together and has done an outstanding job. Thank you very much, Pat; that was great work. I would also like to acknowledge the outgoing chair, the member for New England, who decided to take a sideways promotion—from chair of this committee to Deputy Prime Minister! It was great to work with the member for New England on the committee, and he certainly went out of his way to ensure all committee members had the full capacity to participate in the inquiry. The members of the committee were fabulous to work with.

I said in my valedictory, which the chair very kindly referred to yesterday, that committee work is often one of the most underestimated aspects of this place. So thank you to the member for Higgins, the member for Swan, the member for Hughes, the member for Wentworth, the member for Paterson and the member for Moreton for their fantastic work with us on this particular inquiry.

Finally, the other thing I said in my valedictory was that so much of what we do is supported by an amazing professional group of people who work behind the scenes in this place in all its forms. One of the groups I mentioned was committee secretariats. Thank you so much to secretary, Kate Portus; the inquiry secretary, Ms Fran Denney; research staff Mr Nathan Fewkes, Mr Ashley Stephens, Ms Ashlin Hardiman and Mr Peter Richardson; graduate officers Ms Sarah Nguyen and Ms Sharda Bhargave; and the administration officer, Ms Tamara Palmer. It was a great pleasure to work with all of you. It's an excellent report, and I really commend it to my colleagues to have a read.

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