Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Morrison and Marshall Liberal governments are taking my home state of South Australia to amazing new heights. When I say this I'm not just talking about our historic $90 billion naval shipbuilding plan or our record road and rail infrastructure investment pipeline; we are literally reaching new heights with the establishment of the Australian Space Agency. Headquartered at Lot Fourteen in Adelaide and underpinned by $73 million of federal funding, the Space Agency has launched our national space industry, with the aim of creating 20,000 jobs and $12 billion of value within the decade.

I was delighted to tour the agency to see how their headquarters are taking shape and to meet the team that is helping to launch us into space and the space industry. It was fantastic to see where Australia's first Mission Control Centre will be situated and to hear how it will be open to the public so they can see the ground-breaking work happening right there. Mission control has been funded through a $6 million Space Infrastructure Fund grant and will be available to industry partners to execute small satellite missions, to access space data and to conduct vital research. It will be co-located with the Australian Space Discovery Centre, where students and the public will be able to visit and be inspired by the work undertaken there and encouraged to pursue a career in the space industry.

While touring the agency's headquarters, I met with Professor Andy Koronios, who is leading Australia's SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, right next door to the Space Agency. The SmartSat CRC was kicked off with $55 million in federal government funding, with $167 million being contributed by many different partners, including leading universities, private sector partners and firms such as Nova Systems, BAE and Airbus through to Australian start-up companies. The work of the SmartSat CRC is already paying dividends, with the CRC's supporting partner, DEWC Systems, today revealing that next month it will launch a rocket 100 kilometres into orbit. Its payload will be a high-tech electronic warfare prototype designed to detect radar signals. Measuring only 27 centimetres long and weighing only 34 kilograms, it will be carried by the dart rocket at 1.5 kilometres per second. Importantly, this will showcase what our space industry can do. I wish to congratulate DEWC Systems Chief Executive Ian Spencer for their upcoming launch and wish them every success for next month.

I also wish to thank and congratulate the team at the Australian Space Agency, including the lovely Anny, who took us on a very detailed tour, and Professor Andy Koronios, at the SmartSat CRC and his team for their ongoing work. I am wearing the SmartSat CRC and Australian Space Agency badges in parliament today for them to show the sky is not the limit.