Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee’s report entitled Report 109: Treaty tabled on 2 February 2010.

Ordered that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—This report concerns the exchange of notes constituting an agreement between the government of the United States of America and the government of Australia to amend the agreement concerning space vehicle tracking and communication facilities. The year 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the agreement between the government of the United States of America and the government of Australia concerning space vehicle tracking and communication facilities.

The agreement has provided significant benefits to Australian science with the establishment of major space industry infrastructure in Australia. It has also allowed Australia to be part of some of the human race’s greatest achievements. Images of the first few minutes of Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon were received first at Honeysuckle Creek tracking station, just outside Canberra.

The CSIRO and NASA jointly operate three facilities in Australia: the Canberra deep space tracking station at Tidbinbilla in the ACT and the tracking and data relay satellite ranging system facilities in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and Dongara in Western Australia.

The most significant of these facilities is the tracking station, which is one of only three such facilities in the world—the others being Madrid in Spain and Goldstone in the United States. The facilities are responsible for providing a two-way communications link for the guidance and control of robotic spacecraft in deep space and for the relay of images and data.

The committee had the privilege of inspecting this impressive facility during the conduct of the inquiry. The Tidbinbilla space tracking station is less than an hour’s drive from Canberra, and I strongly commend it to members and indeed to people who may be listening to this broadcast. It is really an outstanding facility. It is free and open, I think, seven days a week. It is a tribute to the ingenuity of human intelligence. As a species we often do stupid things, but we are also capable of great intelligence. The capacity to explore space and discover all its secrets is a wonderful thing to see.

The agreement has been reviewed every 10 years since it was first made in 1960 and now consists of a basic agreement with multiple subsequent exchanges of notes. Both Australia and the United States have agreed to develop a consolidated agreement, incorporating the base agreement and all the exchanges of notes into a single document. To facilitate the development of the new agreement, the exchange of notes currently under consideration extends the life of the base agreement by two years.

The committee supports both the exchange of notes extending the agreement and the concept of negotiating a new consolidated agreement. Australia must ensure that its relationship with organisations like NASA is secure into the future. Only close relationships like those between the CSIRO and NASA will allow Australia to remain at the leading edge of technological development.

Nevertheless, the committee is concerned about how the treaty process has been handled in this instance. The current agreement ends on 26 February and the exchange of notes was only tabled in parliament on 2 February. The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator the Hon. Kim Carr, wrote to the committee requesting that consideration of the exchange of notes be expedited so that the agreement can be renewed by 26 February.

Because of the importance of the relationship between the CSIRO and NASA to Australian scientists, the committee has agreed to table a one-page report supporting treaty action in this instance. However, the committee is uncomfortable about making such a recommendation following such a short period for parliamentary and public scrutiny of a treaty action. Limiting the time available to the committee in this way undermines the effectiveness of parliamentary and public scrutiny of the exchange of notes.

I thank the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, and the staff of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, especially Dr Miriam Baltuck and Mr Glen Nagle, for assisting in the committee’s inquiry. I commend the report to the House.