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

Earlier this chamber debated a motion on the space industry. Unfortunately, because of time constraints on the debate, I missed an opportunity to speak, so I briefly want to add my support to that motion. I am from Adelaide, and the Australian Space Agency is located only a few hundred metres outside of my electorate. It's a great honour to have the Space Agency based in South Australia. South Australia has an enviable heritage when it comes to the space industry in this country. Of course, we have the Woomera Test Range in northern South Australia. Andy Thomas, the first Australian to travel into space, a great Australian hero, is from Adelaide and went to the same school as I did.

Space as an industry will grow exponentially over the next few years. We plan to increase it to a $12 billion industry, and that might be low-balling. It's probably the sort of sector that will grow way beyond our expectations. But it is definitely the future. We must have a Commonwealth focus on this area. We have that now, having established the Australian Space Agency back in late 2018. It was decided that it would be headquartered in Adelaide. That has meant that an ecosystem has grown up around that agency at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide. I'm a great supporter of the industry. It's going to be a huge part of the South Australian economy into the future, and that's why I support the motion that was passed earlier today.

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