Space Industries

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (14:48): My last question, yes. My question is to the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. How is the South Australian space forum helping to drive investment and create jobs in this state?

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Health Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:48): I thank the member for Colton for asking this question about space, which goes out into the unknown where no-one else has been brave enough to go. In fact, we were doing it in 1967, when in November we launched our first ever satellite from Woomera out into the unknown. When we joined the global space club, we were the third country on earth, after the US and the USSR, to launch our own satellite, the WRESAT satellite, which was launched using a Redstone rocket from the United States and carried physics experiments created by the University of Adelaide.

Fifty years on and South Australia is home to a thriving space industrial ecosystem that is quickly building momentum. This year we established the South Australian Space Industry Centre (SASIC) that will support companies to drive investment and create thousands of highly skilled jobs.

On the back of our successful International Astronautical Congress, which saw 4,500 people gather from around the world—astronauts, scientists, experts in this area and overseas space agencies—the state government recently held its fourth South Australian Space Forum. For the first time, international space agencies and private companies attended to share their experience, expertise and international networks. Since the inaugural forum in May 2016, it has grown from 110 attendees to more than 230. We welcomed representatives from our leading universities and schools, venture capitalists and members from the United Arab Emirates Space Agency and the New Zealand Centre for Space Science Technology, along with companies from Italy, South Korea and the United States.

We also heard from our local industry leaders, including Myriota, Nova Systems, Neumann Space and BAE, about their unprecedented growth in the space sector and plans for the future in Australia. We continue to strengthen our alliance with the ACT and the Northern Territory, a relationship that will be integral to maximising investment and creating jobs in the space sector.

The federal government's Department of Industry, Innovation and Science presented its review of Australia's space industry capability and the establishment of the Australian space agency mooted for 2018. The much anticipated recommendations are expected to be released in March, and we look forward to working with the federal government cooperatively to drive this new industry forward.

In the past 18 months, the South Australian Space Forum has become a globally recognised event, and our state is now perfectly placed to capture a greater share of the $420 billion annual global space revenue stream, an industry that is growing at 10 per cent per annum.

Mining, farming and tourism are extremely important to the state economy. They are massive industries important to us all. But South Australia can do more than that. We can be a smart, savvy, high-tech economy, full of jobs for well-qualified and dynamic people in exciting industries, and the space sector is one of them.

The space sector will be a major disrupter of existing industries, including communications, IT, medical science, mining and agriculture. This will present challenges, but also endless opportunities for growth. Our state's journey into these new frontiers and the new economy continues. South Australians should be proud of our rich space history and optimistic about its future.