Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support, albeit reluctant support, of the government's proposed Australian Astronomical Observatory (Transition) Bill 2018. This bill seeks to amend the Australian Astronomical Observatory Act 2010 to amend the short title of the act, substitute a new outline for the act and abolish the Australian Astronomical Observatory and the AAO Advisory Committee.

This bill seeks to abolish the Australian Astronomical Observatory and allow for its function to be transitioned to two consortiums to manage the functions of the body. The functions that are now being outsourced, so to speak, are the operation of 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope on land owned by the Australian National University at Siding Spring near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, which is to be transferred to a consortium led by the very able ANU, and the operation of the astronomical instrumentation capability at North Ryde in Sydney, which is to be transferred to a consortium led by Macquarie University.

This legislation will give effect to the 2017-18 budget measure on access to world-leading astronomy infrastructure, which saw Australia sign up to a strategic partnership with the European Southern Observatory. This powerful strategic partnership allows Australian optical astronomers access to one of the most advanced telescopes in the world at the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. This is a great thing. This strategic partnership will cost, in Commonwealth funding, $119.2 million over the decade from 2017, or $26.1 million over the forward estimates from 2017-18 to 2020-21. I know that many working in the field, many Australian astronomers, have for years argued the case for greater access to these facilities, so it's good to see that we are encouraging and facilitating that as a nation.

This legislation adheres to the most recent 10-year strategic plan, the decadal plan for Australian astronomy 2016-2025, produced by the Academy of Science, which has called for access to eight-metre class optical astronomy infrastructure that is currently not available in this country. The plan also calls for maintenance of efforts in terms of support for Australian domestic capability, including supporting the Australian national observatory and its capabilities. It is encouraging that we in this place are facilitating this vital research, and I'm very pleased this is happening. However, we in the Labor Party are reluctantly supporting this legislation, because, like most things on this government's agenda, it does seek to cut corners wherever it can. This government cares a bit more about how well or badly they are doing in the polls than about the future of this nation and its innovators and researchers.

This legislation proposes to off-load the main government astronomical assets, the Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran and the AAO instrumentation, onto the Australian university sector. That's right: this government is seeking to off-load the work to our universities, which, as we already know, are apprehensive about funding arrangements and cuts due to this government's failure to provide certainty and proper funding to the sector. This government, which is quite happy to cut university funding by $2.2 billion over the next four years, is trying to force unis down the path of a deregulation system, which has failed before, by starving them of critical infrastructure funding as well as ongoing funding. At the same time, they're expecting universities to stump up the cash to keep these key astronomy facilities operational. It is quite a burden this government is seeking to put on the university sector without giving them additional funding. And this is ostensibly done to save the budget $26.1 million over the forward estimates. It's just another bit of trickery, if you ask me. What's happening is they are moving the burden of maintaining these facilities from the Department of Innovation, Industry and Science onto entities that are funded by the Department of Education and Training. As I said, it puts further strain on an already overstretched university sector, which is so important to this country, and on to its overall research infrastructure.

The transition is not without cost. It is expected that a small number of jobs will be lost in this transition: four to five at the Anglo-Australian Telescope and up to another nine at the North Ryde instrumentation laboratories. This is a government that has been spruiking an innovation nation, yet is happy to cull the jobs of some of the brightest researchers and technicians in the country. And by constraining universities, their funding and their research funding, this government continues to put our researchers down, whether they be researchers in social sciences, humanities or the technical sciences that we're talking about today.

Australia is a world leader in the field of astronomy, and we have worked very hard in this place to maintain this regional leadership. Currently the Department of Innovation, Industry and Science has two broad groups that manage Australia's government astronomy assets in partnership with the research community. The first group is the Australian Square Kilometre Array office. It is managing our engagement with the construction of the very exciting Square Kilometre Array, half of which is being built in Western Australia while the other half is being built in South Africa. This will become the world's most advanced radio telescope. I had a bit to do with the establishment of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, headquartered at UWA, and also worked with great partners at Curtin University on the other side of the great Swan River.

ICRAR, the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research, as part of the Square Kilometre Array effort, has made great advancements. Just recently, they reached a very important milestone with the first SKA-low prototype station being completed on site at Murchison, which has that very wonderful radio quiet that is an asset of that part of Western Australia. ICRAR also provides a remarkable opportunity for science outreach in this country, as does astronomy in general. ICRAR, through its work at Astrofest held at Curtin University, has seen more than 2½ thousand people come along and access very high-quality optical telescopes to not only learn a bit more about the important science that is going on in the international centre itself and the development of the SKA, but also for the pure enjoyment and love of looking further into the sky with the optical telescopes out there at Bentley.

The other Australian astronomy group managed by the department is the Australian Astronomical Observatory, which, since 2010, has managed access to the Anglo-Australian Telescope and maintained our national optical instrumentation capability. It's based in North Ryde, in Sydney. This legislation will abolish the AAO as a division of the department on 1 July this year, along with all AAO governance structures. The legislation also seeks to allow the transfer of necessary assets to external entities, in this case the two university-based and university-funded consortiums. As I said before, the consortium for the Anglo-Australian Telescope will be led by the ANU and it will include Curtin University and UWA—two of our great universities in Western Australia—as well as Macquarie University, Monash University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania, and Western Sydney University. So it's a quite remarkable consortium of universities that, whilst having their funding cut by this government, are also expected to chip in to maintain the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The establishment of a national optical instrumentation capability which will build on and further develop the world-class instrumentation functions of the AAO will be led by Macquarie University and Australia Astronomy Limited.

When it was first constructed, the Anglo-Australian Telescope was one of the most advanced in the world and its operation gave Australian and international scientists access to the stars above in an unparalleled fashion. Additionally, it helped develop Australia's advanced scientific and industrial capabilities. However, this facility is now 44 years old. Despite this, it remains an important part of Australia's research infrastructure and we on this side of the House are relieved to see that these assets, as part of the AAO, will be maintained for the next seven years, making the AAT a very important and remaining-vibrant 51-year-old workhorse. While its future beyond that timeframe is not known, I'm sure this government have some plan in mind to keep it going. Especially given the fact that they wouldn't mind seeing us all work until we're 70 years of age before we have access to a pension, why should research facilities be any different?

What effect does this bill have on the astronomical research sector? We scrutinised this bill carefully, as we do all bills. It seeks to maintain and strengthen Australia's position as a first-class nation at the forefront of astronomical research by underscoring the need for access to world-class facilities, and that is something I most certainly support. It recognises that, in order to push forward into the next generation of research about the galaxy, our facilities need multinational partners to fund and construct on the scale and complexity that is required. We know that Australia has already begun to transition from a national research infrastructure portfolio of medium-tiered nationally-owned facilities into multinational partnerships worth billions that create world-class landmark research facilities, and this has been undertaken over many decades. Following on from this, Australia is already playing a critical role in two of the world's biggest billion-dollar astronomy projects: the SKA, which I spoke of earlier, and the Giant Magellan Telescope, which is seeking to be the very first of an entirely new class of extremely large telescopes, as they're referred to, as Australia constructs key components and instrumentation for the project. Both the GMT and the SKA represent a massive increase in the capabilities of these types of instruments and it's matched by a massive leap in the physical size of the telescope. Indeed, the last time such a massively sized leap in scale happened, humanity discovered other solar systems, the black hole, the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and evidence of the universe's continued acceleration.

With such advances in technology, what results is great excitement and proof that the future in this sector is bright. However, future advances will require a sustained and long-term approach to research funding. Many researchers in the country will be well aware of the strains put upon them due to short-termism in government and in university funding agreements. In a former life, I spent 10 years working for the University of Western Australia and witnessed the move from longer-term funding contracts in research to short-term funding contracts, which led to scientists and researchers from all parts of the combined research endeavour leaving that sector and the public losing the capacity of great researchers across all our universities.

It should be noted while we talk about science and astronomical science in this place that, over the past five years, government support for science has been falling. It's now at its lowest share of GDP since 2005. The government's share of total research spending is now smaller than at any time since the 1980s, and that's a sad thing, in my opinion. Research funding is skewing more towards applied research than basic research. Continued mediocre investment in research and, in my view, this government's disgraceful dismissal of universities and the realities of their funding challenges endanger overall research effort.

I'm very pleased to talk about science and research in this place. I spruik at any time I get the chance that the developments made in this nation based on science are remarkable. We would not have been able to develop the south-west of Western Australia as a great agricultural effort without the agricultural scientists who identified the missing elements in our soil that meant that we could not grow wheat so well or that the sheep would die of Denmark wasting disease. Science has played a remarkable part in the development of my state, so, in talking about science, I'm pleased that Labor is committed to ensuring that, by 2030, three per cent of our national gross domestic product will be applied to science research and development. Under Labor, science research, innovation and education will be and are national priorities. We will have a dedicated cabinet minister for science, and that is critical to support efforts not only in the Australian astronomical area—as we have in this bill—but also across all regions of science and research in this country.

I mentioned before that research is a long-term proposition. We need longer-term funding arrangements with, of course, proper accountability. Researchers and scientists need some certainty for their careers so that we don't drive them out of the very important endeavours that they're undertaking at research institutions and universities around this country. I'm a keen supporter of science in this country, particularly the work undertaken at universities. I objected very strongly when the minister for education, Senator Birmingham, accused universities of having rivers of gold. It only demonstrated his total lack of understanding of how universities are funded and how the money that comes from student fees has cross-subsidised the research effort in this country. In my view, this country has to face up to the challenge of science and research funding so that we might have a better future for all young people—like those who are watching from the gallery—so they have the opportunity to study science and do research at schools and at university.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month, I took part in the Australian National University's Guinness world record attempt for the greatest number of telescopes pointed at once at the night sky. More than 285 stargazing parties were registered across Australia, with thousands of telescopes delivered across the country. We're not talking about cardboard telescopes; we're talking about good-quality, entry-level telescopes that you'd probably get from Australian Geographic shops to help Australians develop an interest in—perhaps even a love for—astronomy. The night of the big stargazing Guinness world record attempt, I went to the party out the front of Parliament House—it was freezing—with one of my staff. I was pleased to see my colleagues the member for Macquarie and Senator Ketter raising a telescope to the night sky as well as some luminaries from various departments at the Australian National University. World experts were standing with me when we were looking up at the Moon and stars, trying to break the record on a cold Canberra night. According to media reports, more than 40,000 people simultaneously observed the Moon through telescopes for 10 minutes, eclipsing the previous record set by the ANU in 2015 of 7,960 people. It will be a tough act to follow.

We had Brian Schmidt with us on the lawns. Our event host was Professor Brian Cox, the rock star of astronomy. I have a huge crush on that man—I'm confessing that right here, right now! The night was telecast right across Australia. It was lovely looking at Professor Brian Cox and seeing him beamed right across Australia as part of this world record attempt. He said that breaking the record is only half of the story. He went on to say:

The real value is that many thousands of Australians have been introduced to the wonders of the night sky, and many of those will be children. They will develop a lifelong interest in astronomy and science, and the impact of that will be felt in decades to come.

Professor Cox's words have made me stop and think about space and space sciences, and the wonder that most of us had when we heard about the Apollo mission to the moon. I'm dating myself here, but I remember when I was a child—and there are some over across the aisle who may remember this as well—making my little lunar module when we were waiting, eagerly anticipating the first person on the moon. I had my little lunar module. I'd just done some research and found out that in the really posh, expensive breakfast cereals you actually got the plastic module. But I actually made mine out of cardboard—I think that was on the back of the relatively cheaper breakfast cereal that I had.

The Apollo missions to the moon excited all of Australia and the entire world. Here we were, as children, making our little lunar modules or pulling them out of the posh breakfast cereal. And there was Voyager's discoveries of other planets—and who could forget that first time we saw those amazing photos of the rings around Saturn?

Since the stargazing event sparked my interest, I've since learned even more about Canberra's longstanding and proud connection to space, astronomy and astrophysics. I'm lucky to be able to say that my electorate of Canberra is home to the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the ANU; the Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex.

The Mount Stromlo Observatory is one of the oldest institutions in the ACT, with astronomical observations occurring on the mountain since the early 1900s. The Commonwealth Solar Observatory was established on the site in 1924, and its research focused on solar and atmospheric physics. During the Second World War the observatory was used as an optical munitions establishment, and it was only after the war that its research direction shifted towards stellar and galactic astronomy. Aren't they fantastic words: stellar and galactic astronomy!

The observatory was amalgamated with the ANU in 1957 to support the university's astronomy degrees. A short time later the university established a second observatory at Siding Spring in the Warrumbungle mountains to provide a permanent dark site in response to the increasing growth and light in Canberra. Both of the observatories—Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring—formed one of the leading optical astronomical observatories in the world, supporting innovative and world-leading research into the structure and evolution of planets, stars and galaxies; the origin and development of the universe; and the physics of stars. Researchers also collaborate internationally, gaining access to different telescopes and keeping Australian astronomers at the forefront of astronomical research.

The ANU's Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt, who was there stargazing with me and my colleagues just a few weeks ago, led a top science team at the observatory in the 1990s, studying the rate of change of the cosmic expansion. In 1998 his team reached the conclusion that the cosmic expansion was accelerating, contrary to expectations. What this acceleration meant—and I'm not an astronomy expert, so I hope I get this right, Brian—is that it showed the existence of dark energy, a top science breakthrough which culminated in Brian receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011, along with his peers Saul Perlmutter and Adam Reiss.

Brian's success is a great story, showing Canberra's research prowess and affinity with space. Unfortunately, the fires of 2003 damaged the telescope capabilities on Mount Stromlo, and since then some capabilities have moved to its sister site, the Siding Spring Observatory. Despite this, new capabilities and opportunities have since been developed at Mount Stromlo. It is now home to the Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre, a world-class facility for developing astronomical instrumentation. I have been out there; you can only imagine the precision work that you have to do in this space to build and test small satellites and space payloads.

But Canberra's space connection isn't only about research. We have also had a role in supporting a number of space missions undertaken by NASA. During the mid 1960s, NASA built three tracking stations in Canberra. The Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, which is now the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, opened in 1965 and is the only NASA tracking station in Australia still in operation. The Tidbinbilla Valley, 35 kilometres to the south-west of Canberra, was chosen to be the place for the deep space tracking station because of its close proximity to a city and because of the surrounding ridges—Cooleman Ridge, Urambi Hills and Bullen Range—that help to shield it from unwanted radio frequency noise. This is something unique to Canberra. During the Apollo program, Tidbinbilla was used for tracking the Apollo lunar module and was involved in the Mariner 4 spacecraft encounter with Mars.

The second station, the Orroral Valley Tracking Station, was opened in May 1965 in Namadgi National Park. It's role was orbiting satellite support, although it also supported the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Unfortunately, it was closed in 1985.

The third station, Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, also located in Namadgi National Park, opened in 1967 and was built primarily to support the Apollo moon missions—mainly communications with the Apollo command module. It was the 26-metre antenna at Honeysuckle Creek that received and relayed to the world the first historic TV images of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon on 21 July 1969, not the dish at Parkes—and I'm sure I'm going to be getting lots of mail about this—in the member for Calare's electorate that the movie portrayed. After the cancellation of the Apollo project, the station continued its important work. The station supported Skylab until its re-entry in 1979 and then joined the Deep Space Network in support of the Viking and Voyager projects to investigate the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The year 1981 saw the closure of Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station. Its antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla to become known as Deep Space Station 46, and it's there today. After the antenna was removed, the rest of the facility was dismantled and knocked down. Its foundation, access road and parking area are all that remains of this historic facility. After all of these missions, there was a period of construction at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, with bigger and better antennas built to allow communication with spacecraft over longer distances. The complex is still a working location and is managed by the CSIRO, and it continues to support satellite communications, space shuttle missions and the Hubble Space Telescope as they pass over the Indian Ocean and Australia.

The Australian Astronomical Observatory (Transition) Bill 2018 focuses on the Australian Astronomical Observatory and unfortunate but necessary changes that we have to make. The observatory was established in 2010 to manage the operations of the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The need for the observatory came about because the government's partner at the time, the United Kingdom, withdrew from the joint funding arrangement during the GFC. The funding secured from government would cover the operations of the observatory for 20 years, to 2020.

For a number of years, members of the scientific community have asked government to explore entering a partnership with the European Southern Observatory so that access could be given to the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. The funding envelope for such an arrangement has been beyond the capabilities of government until recently, when the European Southern Observatory approached government with an offer of a 10-year strategic partnership at a cost of $119 million. The government will make the agreement happen by transferring existing optical astronomy resources from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science to the research community, saving $25.2 million. The arrangements will give the astronomy community access to the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. But it will also mean the end of an era; it will mean the end of the Australian Astronomical Observatory, because it will need to close. That is the purpose of today's bill. It will abolish the observatory and allow for its functions to be transitioned to two consortiums to manage.

The 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope is currently located at Siding Spring Observatory, owned by the ANU, and will be transferred to a consortium managed by the ANU. The astronomical instrumentation capability, currently located at North Ryde in Sydney, will be transferred to a consortium led by Macquarie University. What this bill clearly shows is the funding cliff that torments many areas of scientific research in Australia. It shows that it is real. In this particular case, the new agreement simply pushes astronomy research back from the precipice for another 10 years. At that time, further decisions will need to be made. Will Australia become a full member of the European Southern Observatory? Will the research community or government seek access for Australian science to another telescope? Or, worse, will we discontinue or abandon this area of scientific leadership that Australia has enjoyed for so long?

While we have another 10 years before we need to make any of these decisions, I will make it clear that Labor supports retaining Australia's capability in optical astronomy. As the member for Canberra, I am very, very proud that my community is home to one of Australia's universities that is leading the way in astronomy research and that we have a proud and longstanding connection already to space and space sciences. It makes sense that Canberra is considered the home for the new space agency, and I welcome the commitment that was made by the shadow minister for innovation, industry, science and research last week at the Building Australia's Strategy for Space conference, organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, where he said that Labor was committed to basing the new space agency in Canberra.

There's a natural fit. We have a rich history of the Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex. We have the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the ANU, led by a vice-chancellor who knows space and won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery. We have the scientific skills of staff in the CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. We have the engineering and coordination expertise in the Department of Defence and we have the Department of Communications and the Arts and the Australian Communications and Media Authority. These are the government agencies that industry comes to Canberra to work with, so it makes sense that Canberra would be the right fit, the natural home, for a space agency and for space facilities.

Australians have a great love for space. We saw it in the sixties, where everyone was out with their lunar modules and talking nothing but space and missions to the moon. Through the expertise that we have and through a commitment to a space agency and investment in space in the future, Labor hopes that we can excite future generations to enjoy the pleasure that we enjoyed so much in the sixties in that first mission to the moon.

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a great pleasure to talk about this bill because it's about space—'to boldly go where no-one has gone before'. That's what Australian astronomers and scientists have been doing for decades, reaching out to the stars, with their eyes, their ears and the instruments that they use, to ask the most deep and meaningful questions that human beings have always asked. Are we alone? What's out there? What are these wonders out there in the universe that light up the sky? All of us have looked up at that sky, particularly on those clear starry nights in Australia, as kids and adults. We've all dreamed those dreams about other worlds and other places in our universe and asked those fundamental questions that go to the very meaning of life and our place in it. Therefore, the work that Australian astronomers do, both amateur and professional, is so important, not just for the scientific community but for humanity as well.

We know that this bill will abolish the Australian Astronomical Observatory and allow for its function to be transitioned to two consortiums to manage. The legislation will also give effect to the 2017-18 budget measure, access to world-leading astronomy infrastructure, which saw Australia sign up a strategic partnership with the European Southern Observatory. In terms of optical astronomy, the scientific community has been asking government for a number of years to explore entering into a partnership with the European Southern Observatory in order to gain access to the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile, which is quite significant. Until recently, this access has been beyond the fiscal capability of the Australian government. But recently the ESO approached the Australian government with an offer of a 10-year strategic partnership at a cost of $119 million. Access to the telescopes at the observatory in Chile will give Australia's optical astronomy community access to the eight-metre telescope they have long been asking for. However, all of this all requires changes to the existing act that will close down the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

I want to state clearly that Labor will support this legislation, but we will do so somewhat reluctantly. We support the views expressed by those in the astronomy community that the best way to expand Australia's optical astronomy industry is through a partnership with the European Southern Observatory.

Although approval or otherwise of this legislation will not necessarily impact on the government proceeding with the ESO strategic partnership, which has already been signed and funded through the 2017-18 budget, Labor does understand that this legislation is part of the process of partnering with the ESO and that, therefore, our support is necessary. Furthermore, failure to support this bill will result in the Anglo-Australian Telescope, the AAT—not to be confused with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal—and the Australian Astronomical Observatory, the AAO, in North Ryde, being unable to transfer to the university sector, resulting in their closure in July 2020 and the loss of up to 53 jobs.

We reluctantly support this bill because it is a stopgap and not a solution. This bill does not resolve the funding cliff that has long bedevilled many areas of scientific endeavour in this country but pushes it out by another 10 years. It should also be noted that, when the ESO strategic partnership expires, the Commonwealth will need to decide whether to become a full member of the ESO, seek access for Australian science to another telescope or discontinue this area of scientific leadership our country has long enjoyed and excelled at. It will be a real shame if Australia ever discontinues this area of scientific leadership, because currently the Commonwealth works to maintain Australia's position of leadership in astronomy.

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science has two broad groups that manage Australia's astronomy assets in partnership with the research community. There is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Office, which is managing our engagement with the construction of the Square Kilometre Array, SKA, part of which is being built in Western Australia and the other half in South Africa. This will become the world's most advanced radio-telescope observatory. Then there is the AAO, which since 2010 has managed to access the Anglo-Australian Telescope and maintained our instrumentation capability based in North Ryde, Sydney.

This legislation will abolish the AAO as a division of the department on 1 July 2018 along with all AAO governance structures. It will allow the transfer of necessary assets to external entities, in this case the two university based consortiums. Firstly, there is the one led by the Australian National University, which transfers operations of the AAT to a consortium made up of several universities, led by the ANU, across Australia, including but not limited to Monash University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Queensland, the University of Tasmania and the University of Western Australia. The second consortium is with Macquarie University and the Australian Astronomy Limited consortium, which takes responsibility for the establishment of a national optical instrumentation capability and for the further development of the world-class instrumentation functions of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

When it was constructed, the Anglo-Australian Telescope was the most advanced in the world. Its construction and operation granted the nation's scientists access to an advanced facility and allowed the development of advanced scientific and industrial techniques in Australia. While it is now 44 years old, the Anglo-Australian Telescope is still an important part of the nation's research infrastructure. Labor is relieved that the assets of the AAO will be maintained for the next seven years; however, their future beyond that date is still not resolved. The question of what happens beyond that date is key, because maintaining and strengthening Australia's position at the front line of astronomical research requires access to world-class facilities. The next generation of these facilities needed to make the next major discoveries about our universe are of such a scale and complexity that they require multinational partnerships to fund and build. That's just necessary to do that kind of work.

Australia needs to ask itself what it wants from optical astronomy. Does Australia want to lead the industry? Do we want to be at the front line of research? Do we want our scientists to make discoveries about our universe? The partnership with the ESO gives Australian optical astronomers access to one of the most advanced telescopes in the world at the La Silla Paranal Observatory in Chile. But it leaves us floating in a vacuum after it expires. Australian astronomy has already begun the transition from a national research infrastructure portfolio of midscale Australian-owned facilities to partnership in multinational billion-dollar landmark facilities.

We are playing a critical role in two of the world's biggest billion-dollar astronomy projects: the Square Kilometre Array, which will be partly built in Australia with local industry and regional engagement; and the new Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be the first in a new class of extremely large telescopes, for which Australia is building key instrumentation. Both the GMT and the SKA present an extreme leap in telescope size. The last time a size leap of this scale happened we actually discovered planets around other stars outside of our solar system. We discovered the supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy and evidence that the universe is accelerating.

The future is bright, but there needs to be sustained maintenance of effort and long-term security for our scientists. The Commonwealth-European Southern Observatory partnership provides for maintenance of effort for the next 10 years, but there is no certainty beyond that. Before 2028 the Commonwealth will again be obliged to decide whether to become a full member of the ESO or invest in the new GMT, which will be online by that time. So, at best, this is a medium-term stay of execution. Yet again Australian science is faced with replacing one funding cliff with a new funding cliff. So what does Australia get as a result of prolonging the inevitable funding cliff? The cost to the Commonwealth of this partnership is $119 million over the decade from 2017, or $26.1 million over the forward estimates from 2017-18 to 2020-21.

Improved access to these facilities has been a common refrain amongst astronomers for many years. Australia in the era of global astronomy: The Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy 2016-2025, produced by the Academy of Science, calls for access to eight-metre-class optical astronomy infrastructure, which is currently not available in Australia. The same plan calls for maintenance of effort in terms of support for Australian domestic capability, including supporting the Australian Astronomical Observatory and its capabilities.

The legislation that we are debating proposes to off-load the main government astronomical assets, the AAT, near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, and the AAO instrumentation, onto the Australian university sector. This is being done ostensibly to save the budget $26.1 million over the forward estimates. In reality, it's pretty much a sleight of hand—moving the burden of maintaining these facilities from the Department of Innovation, Industry and Science onto entities funded by the Department of Education and Training. This transition doesn't come without a cost. It's expected that a small number of jobs will be lost in the transition—four to five at the Anglo-Australian Telescope and up to nine at the North Ryde instrumentation laboratories.

There is some irony that, at a time when the government is seeking to cut university funding by $2.2 billion over the next four years, it expects universities to stump up the cash to keep these key astronomy facilities operational. We hope that they are able to remain operational, because Australia has developed a longstanding and globally recognised expertise in astronomy and we don't want to lose that leadership. We have some of the best skies in the world for astronomical observation, and our continent faces 25 per cent of space. Many people have heard of the northern lights—otherwise known as aurora borealis—but, in our own southern skies, we can bear witness to the wonders of aurora australis, the same phenomenon but in the Southern Hemisphere.

This abundance of sky is not lost on Australians, as we are a nation of keen amateur astronomers. Earlier this year, the country was captivated with a super blood moon, where we were treated to the three lunar phenomenon all at once: a blue moon, or a second full moon in the same calendar month; a blood moon, where the moon is in full eclipse causing the usually white moon to become red or a ruddy brown; and a super moon, where a full moon coincides with the closest distance that the moon reaches to earth in its elliptic orbit. Social media lit up when this happened that night, with people sharing their photos of the moon. Those who had less than ideal weather also posted about their disappointment that they could not actually see it. Everyone had an interest.

That was not a one-off, either. We saw this when the ABC, in partnership with the Australian National University, led a Guinness world record attempt for the most people stargazing recently. This was to break the world record for the most people simultaneously observing the moon in the night sky through a telescope or binoculars. It was broadcast on ABC's Stargazing Live, which has returned to our screens due to outstanding success last year—a real demonstration of how much Australians are engaged in and passionate about science and particularly astronomy.

I would say that, on that basis, the evidence is pretty clear that Australians love astronomy. We have so many talented astronomers and we have many young people who look to the stars for inspiration. Yet, with this bill, we're presenting the astronomical community with a funding cliff—which has only been postponed—that not only affects our current scientists but also creates a level of uncertainty for any bright young mind that would look to the skies to help provide answers for our place in the universe. In some sense, we're hampering our ability to produce expertise. Even though Australian astronomy is world-leading and inspires thousands of Australians through citizens, science and activities, like the annual ABC stargazing, it is not backed up by the federal government with this bill. Providing a pathway where our scientists can have access to the best research infrastructure in the world is absolutely essential, but it should not come at the cost of outsourcing the existing infrastructure to a university sector that is already copping a $2.2 billion cut from the coalition government. It is an example of the government continuing to gut Australian science and the Department of Innovation, Industry and Science. We support this legislation, but we make a clear note of the cul-de-sac of uncertainty and cuts that this government has led us to.

I started my speech by talking about the fundamental questions that we ask when we look up to the night sky: are we alone? What's out there? What are these wonders of the universe that we dream about as kids and as adults? Astronomy is very much a part of our lives because it helps us ask those perennial human questions about who we are and our place in the universe. I will finish with a well-known farewell: 'Live long and prosper!'

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a privilege to sum up the Australian Astronomical Observatory (Transition) Bill 2018. I want to thank all honourable members for considering the bill and for their comments—even the reference from the member opposite to Star Trek and Star Wars. Being a bit of a sci-fi nerd, I very much appreciate your final comment there. The bill gives effect to the government's 2017-18 budget measure maintaining Australia's optical astronomy capability. In doing this, we open up a new and exciting chapter of astronomical discovery and technical innovation for this country.

A flagship element of this farsighted budget measure is that the Australian government has entered into a 10-year strategic partnership with the European Southern Observatory from 11 July 2017. For Australia's astronomers this changes everything. ESO is the world's foremost optical astronomy organisation—a multinational collaboration of 15 member states and host nation Chile. It offers its participants access to the world's leading-edge infrastructure, unparalleled research cooperation and collaboration, and strategic industry opportunities.

Australia, as a strategic partner, is now an integral part of the ESO story. Our astronomers have long told us that this type of stable, long-term partnership is absolutely essential to their ability to engage in the biggest questions of science and influence the technical innovation that goes into and comes out of world-class instruments. Australia's astronomers have lost no time in making the most of their new access. In a recent competitive call for ESO observing time, Australian-led research proposals enjoyed an impressive 38 per cent success rate. That includes over 300 hours on the world's most advanced optical telescope, the eight-metre diameter very large telescope at Paranal. This is a remarkable achievement for Australia's inaugural observing period. It confirms the strong international standing of Australia's astronomers.

In addition to access to the best telescopes in the world this partnership also provides Australians with professional opportunities at ESO through jobs, fellowships and scholarships. It allows for Australians to influence the frameworks and direction of ESO through participation in its strategic governance structures. Australian research institutions can develop new optical technologies and instruments for ESO telescopes. Australia has unique strengths in this field. We have the expertise and innovation the rest of the world wants—in our robotic fibre-optic technologies, control instrument systems, software, astronomical data pipelines and archiving systems. Australian based companies and institutions can now tender for work at the ESO's Cerro Paranal observatory. Engagement with ESO will help Australian companies expand their capabilities overseas, not only in astronomy but also in space stations and other spin-off technologies that will define our world in decades to come.

The ESO partnership heralds a new era of optical astronomy in our nation as we prepare for global investments and even larger telescopes that will see further into our universe. To meet this new challenge and demand, we are consolidating our optical astronomy efforts nationally. This bill provides a roadmap for that. From 1 July 2018 the key scientific operations of the Australian Astronomical Observatory will transition from the Commonwealth to the research sector. The Australian Astronomical Observatory will cease to exist in its current form, and the secretary of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science will retain important optical astronomy powers under the Australian Astronomical Observatory Act 2010 to ensure a sound legislative basis for future government support of Australian optical astronomy initiatives.

Responsibility for operating the Anglo-Australian Telescope will transfer to the Australian National University, acting on behalf of a consortium of universities. This consortium will operate the telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran in New South Wales until at least the end of its extended operational life in 2024-25. This extended operational life of the telescope will provide ongoing access to Australian researchers, international consortia and the next generation of home-grown astronomers and engineers. It will also continue to benefit businesses and tourism in regional Australia.

The Australian Astronomical Observatory's renowned optical instrumentation capability will transfer to a second consortium led by Macquarie University, in partnership with the ANU and the University of Sydney. This consortium will continue to develop and deliver world-class instruments to overseas observatories, strengthen research industry collaboration domestically, connect the national instrumentation effort and drive the commercialisation of optical astronomy innovation in adjacent industries.

The government has worked hand-in-glove with the astronomical community here, particularly in the lead-up to the new consortium—the ANU, the Macquarie University and Astronomy Australia Limited—to ensure a positive transformation of our domestic capability. The efforts of those involved have been concerted, positive, dedicated and far-sighted. This kind of government and research sector partnership will continue to ensure a strong, sustainable foundation for future discovery that can be shared with all of our citizens. I especially acknowledge the patience, cooperation and professionalism of the staff at the Australian Astronomical Observatory in this period of considerable organisational change. The deep expertise, decades of hard work, innovation and resilience provide a strong foundation for the work to come. The government's optical astronomy measure will strengthen our research and industry opportunities in the coming decade. It will extend the legacy of the Australian Astronomical Observatory and our global reputation. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.