Melissa Price (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very grateful to the member for McPherson for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House. I'd like to acknowledge the member's tenure as the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology under the coalition government and, in particular, her interest and passion for the Australian space sector. I would like to wish the Australian Space Agency a very happy birthday, noting that on 1 July it will be five years since its official establishment. I know that Enrico Palermo, head of the agency, will have something very special planned.

I too have had the great honour of being a minister responsible for space, when I was the minister for both the defence industry and the science and technology portfolios. During this time I had the great honour of meeting many Australian companies working hard to fill our nation's space needs. While I was minister I was pleased to address the Australian Space Forum and outline our ambitious vision for the sector. Our mission was to triple Australia's space sector size to $12 billion and create an extra 20,000 highly skilled jobs by 2030. Whilst this goal was ambitious, it was achievable with our strong commitment to the space sector. Competition in the global space sector is fierce, but with our focused efforts to leverage Australia's competitive advantage we were making very good progress. With the coalition's establishment of the Australian Space Agency in 2018, we built a very strong foundation for leading the charge. Since the agency was established, over $2.5 billion in investment has flowed into the sector from government, the private sector and international space agencies. We maintained our focus on supporting the sector to grow, by investing in building capability, strengthening those partnerships and inspiring the next generation of Aussie space workers.

Speaking at the Australian Space Forum in March 2022, I said:

I believe we are at a critical point in time for the Australian space industry.

We have been through the start-up phase. Now it is time to scale up.

We believe that investment in space is central to Australia's future.

And from where I'm standing—the future looks very bright.

Yet the Labor Party's decision to defund crucial programs such as the Australia spaceports program, the Australian technology into orbit program and a subprogram of the Moon to Mars program sends a message of complacency and missed opportunity and undermines this vision. These programs were aimed at helping space organisations be part of the supply chain for NASA's ambitious plans to return to the moon and, eventually, journey to Mars. By defunding these initiatives, the Labor government undermines our potential contributions to global space exploration and deprives our industries of the opportunities for growth and innovation.

It was obvious to the space industry in Australia that the coalition government understood very clearly the importance of developing a sovereign space industry for civil and defence purposes and had the vision and the policies to support this. Sadly, what is now obvious is that the Albanese government has no vision and clearly does not understand that the Australian space industry is important for business and national security. You have to ask yourself: why did the Albanese Labor government cut around $70 million from growing Australia's space industry program in the last budget, and why isn't space a standalone priority under the Labor government's National Reconstruction Fund?

In the 2020 Defence strategic update, the coalition included space as its own domain, illustrating our governments clear understanding of the importance of space for the defence of our nation. Australia's first national space mission—the National Space Mission for Earth Observation—is now under threat, due to these irresponsible cuts by the Labor government. This mission, which was intended to build satellites to detect and respond to bushfires and floods, as well as to undertake maritime surveillance, put Australia at the forefront of a progressively promising industry. The coalition announced $1.2 billion for this project in March 2022. At the time, James Brown, the Chief Executive Officer of the Space Industry Association of Australia, described it as 'the most strategic and significant space public policy in 40 years'. I agree with you, James.

I would like to finish on a positive note and send my best wishes to all Aussie students who are participating in the Spacesport America Cup this week in New Mexico in the United States. Many Australian universities are well represented, including the University of Western Australia, from my home state. Last year's overall winner of the Spaceport America Cup was the University of Sydney's USYD rocketry team, which is further proof that Australia has got talent. We can only hope that Australia can take advantage of all this talent, but it requires space vision and funding of the vision, which unfortunately, the current government is failing on. (Time expired)

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