Motions

Space Sector

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (10:55): I move:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges the importance of the South Australian space sector, not just to the state's economy but to a variety of sectors ranging from education and skills, to energy, resources and the environment;

(b) recognises that Lot Fourteen is host to the Space Innovation Precinct, which houses the Australian Space Agency, SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, key space organisations, the Mission Control Centre and the Space Discovery Centre;

(c) commends the former Liberal government for their foresight in the creation Lot Fourteen, located on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, as a hub of technology, space, innovation and entrepreneurship;

(d) condemns the Albanese federal Labor government for defunding and scaling back programs targeted to support Australia’s space sector, including the $1.2 billion National Space Mission for Earth Observation mission, the $7 billion military-grade satellite communications system JP9102 and the NASA-backed Starshot program; and

(e) calls on the Malinauskas Labor state government to publicly condemn and admonish the Albanese Labor federal government for their ongoing and egregious cuts to the Australian space sector.

I take the opportunity in parliament to acknowledge the critical importance of South Australia's burgeoning space sector. It is an industry that is not only launching satellites but also helping to launch careers, technological innovation and economic growth across our state.

I also take the opportunity to reaffirm the opposition's commitment to South Australia's leadership in Australia's space sector. It is a sector that inspires the next generation of engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs. It also helps secure our place in emerging global industries and ensures that here in South Australia we are not just users of technology but also creators of it as well.

It is undeniable that South Australia really has become the centre of gravity for Australia's space industry. It is not by accident. In large part it was through the foresight, determination and vision here in South Australia of industry and also the former South Australian Liberal government which laid the foundation for what is now a thriving ecosystem at Lot Fourteen.

Over the last 12 months South Australia's space sector has witnessed some significant milestones. In May last year Southern Launch successfully launched the Hylmpulse SR75 from their new permanent rocket launch site at the Koonibba Test Range. The SR75 is a hybrid rocket and its propeller is made from liquid oxygen and paraffin wax, quite similar to candle wax. The SR75 was the first vehicle to be launched under the high-powered rocket permit issued by the Australian Space Agency that is based right here in South Australia at Lot Fourteen, again thanks to both the former state and federal Liberal governments.

In terms of the SR75, it was also the largest ever commercial rocket to be launched from Australia. As I said, it launched successfully on 3 May and flew to the edge of space. The mission itself was a short one, only lasting eight minutes, but the mission was not only a success for the teams of Southern Launch and Hylmpulse but also a success for the local Koonibba Aboriginal community as well. Over 30 of the approximately 50 Koonibba locals were employed by Southern Launch, bringing economic opportunity to that area as well. The community can rightly be very proud of the contribution they made to this historic launch.

Then we also had the success of Kanyini, launched on a SpaceX rocket mission out of the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California in August last year. On that SpaceX rocket there were many satellites, and one of them, of course, was Kanyini. Soon after it was launched, you got the running commentary from the flight controller, and he was able to announce 'Kanyini deploy confirmed'. Just that short three-word statement heralded the successful launch of Australia's first state government-funded satellite, which was developed and manufactured right here in South Australia.

It also marked the fruition of over 3½ years of intense work by everyone involved in the project. The Kanyini project got underway in January 2021, when former Premier Marshall announced that his government was providing $6.5 million for a groundbreaking South Australian space mission. Under a partnership with the South Australian space industry, a small satellite was to be manufactured in South Australia and launched into earth orbit.

While space obviously seems out of this world, it is also about making our life here on earth better. The information gathered by the Kanyini satellite will help to improve state services and provide vital data for everyday South Australians, helping to assist farmers to monitor water levels and more accurately predict future crop yields. It will also help emergency services personnel get greater oversight to monitor, manage and even mitigate emergencies like bushfires. The mission also helped to boost South Australia's space economy by getting South Australian businesses, some of them small, into the small satellite supply chain. This helps by getting that space legacy further embedded into the space sector in South Australia, the opportunity to have further investment in South Australia.

The space mission itself was overseen by the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, which led the mission and also the application prototyping. The SmartSat CRC is led by chief executive Professor Andy Koronios, and the Kanyini mission director was Peter Nikoloff, with Adelaide-based satellite manufacturing company Inovor Technologies designing and building the satellite and South Australian space company Myriota contracted for the Internet of Things space services.

Fast-forward to February this year, and Southern Launch were part of a world first this time with Varda Space Industries when they safely landed their W-2 satellite at Southern Launch's Koonibba Test Range. This was the first ever commercial satellite to return to a commercial rocket range, landing at Southern Launch's Koonibba Test Range. The satellite was launched into space in January, and it had two payloads on board. One was pharmaceutical and the other was US Air Force research testing of a heat shield for hypersonic re-entry.

After 45 days orbiting, the satellite re-entered the atmosphere, first over Norway at hypersonic speeds before its trajectory found it approaching Koonibba Test Range, where it deployed parachutes and safely landed there. Of course, Koonibba Test Range is 41,000 square kilometres of uninhabited land, so it really makes that an ideal and safe location for satellite re-entry. Varda also chose Southern Launch because the US airspace is so heavily congested that it really can only be closed down for satellite re-entry very infrequently. This is a great opportunity for further collaborations between Southern Launch and other companies seeking to use the Koonibba Test Range going forward.

To do this, Southern Launch had to secure all the regulatory approvals for re-entry through the Australian Space Agency. It was the first commercial re-entry into Australia, and it was the first one under Australia's new space law. After landing, Southern Launch's recovery team, along with payload specialists from Varda, again operated with and involved the local Koonibba Aboriginal community as well. Those are three fantastic and, I think, groundbreaking milestones for the space sector here in South Australia over the last year, and really show the work the industry is doing.

It is also important to say that the space sector's value extends far beyond rockets and satellites. As I have said before, it also touches a lot of our society. We may think we are disconnected from the space sector, but if it were not there a lot of our everyday life would become much more inconvenient because a lot of applications rely on data that emanates from space as well.

At the heart of our space sector here in South Australia is Lot Fourteen, a global innovation precinct on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site that was transformed under the former Liberal government. This world-class precinct hosts, as I said, the Australian Space Agency, the SmartSat CRC, Inovor Technologies and other cutting-edge players. It also hosts Australia's Mission Control Centre and the Space Discovery Centre, which is fantastic for helping inspire the next generation of students interested in space. It really helps to cement South Australia's reputation as the nation's space capital.

Let's not forget that this was a deliberate and bold initiative by the former South Australian Liberal government to help transform what was a defunct hospital site into what one would say is a launchpad of innovation, research and entrepreneurship here in South Australia. Lot Fourteen has also become an economic magnet for these sorts of industries, and draws investment and talent not only from Australia but from international companies as well. It is a legacy that will stand South Australia in good stead.

Again, talking about some of these companies that are coming to South Australia, we had big global giants like Microsoft and AWS getting involved because of the work going on at Lot Fourteen. As members can see, we had great support invested in the space industry here in South Australia, and I highlighted the $6.5 million Kanyini satellite project. All that work is proceeding at pace, and goes towards building sovereign capability here.

Unfortunately, the federal Albanese Labor government has taken the opposite approach to space and, in fact, has axed important space programs. I have spoken in parliament before about how the Albanese Labor government slashed nearly $80 million in programs targeted to support Australia's space industry, with cuts including the Moon to Mars Supply Chain Facilitation grant, which was aimed at helping small and medium space organisations be part of the supply chain for NASA.

The Albanese government also cancelled a $30 million program designed to support faster access to space flight by Australian companies, which will directly affect some of the companies I have spoken about before with their work in Kanyini. Also axed was $32.5 million allocated to support the development of Australian space ports. I have just spoken about two fantastic milestones reached by Southern Launch, and the opportunity to bring international money here into South Australia at their Koonibba launch facility and potentially Whalers Way as well.

These cuts were just an entree to the massive cut by the Albanese Labor government to the $1.2 billion National Space Mission for Earth Observation, which was really going to help in having a sovereign capability for the country in terms of earth weather observation as well. The Labor government also axed the ambitious NASA-backed Starshot program, which was aimed to drive research into game changing space technologies.

It also cut the very significant $7 billion JP9102 military space communication system. This would have ensured sovereign communications capability for our defence forces tracking. We have seen the effects of cruise missiles in conflict, and for our country to have a sovereign capability to be able to have its own military communication system is vitally important in a modern defence posture. At the same time it also provided opportunities for South Australian space companies here in our state.

These really are a series of short-sighted decisions by the federal Albanese Labor government. When other countries in the world are doubling down on space investment, we have cuts by the federal Labor government. It just demonstrates a complete lack of interest or understanding in the role that government has to play in building a native and self-reliant space industry in South Australia.

Of course, it is just not good enough for the Malinauskas Labor state government to remain silent while South Australia's hard-earned leadership in space is being undermined by their federal counterparts. I call on the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Treasurer—who is also the Minister for Defence and Space Industries—to join the Liberal opposition in defending our space interests and calling out the federal Labor government's egregious cuts and lack of interest in Australia's sovereign space industry.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (11:10): I thank the member for Morphett for moving the motion, because I think it is always important that this place recognises the significant leadership that our state has in space, but I seek to amend the motion as follows:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges the importance of the South Australian space sector, not just to the state's economy, but to a variety of sectors ranging from education and skills to energy, resources and the environment;

(b) recognises that Lot Fourteen is host to the Space Innovation Precinct, which houses the Australian Space Agency, SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre, key space organisations, the Mission Control Centre and the Space Discovery Centre;

(c) acknowledges the former Liberal government for the creation of Lot Fourteen, located on the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, as a hub of technology, space, innovation and entrepreneurship; and

(d) acknowledges the Malinauskas Labor state government's commitment to the South Australian space industry by continuing to support and invest in Lot Fourteen and the broader sector.

I welcome the opportunity for the house to recognise South Australia's leadership in the space industry. As the member has indicated, space is not just a discrete industry which only few people either are involved in or get benefit from, it is an industry which enables so much more of our economic activity, not just in South Australia but nationally and internationally.

It underpins our agriculture industry by providing the positional accuracy that allows tractors to sow and harvest accurately, it supports our timing systems that allow us to conduct bank transfers and contactless payments, and it saves lives in search and rescue by providing communications and navigation to find people who are in need. So the space industry is not some sort of optional accessory for an advanced economy. It is an essential ingredient.

But of course, at this juncture in our nation's history and the geopolitical circumstances in which we find ourselves, space is also an enabler of critical technologies in national security and this government is committed to investing in programs that develop and grow innovative ideas and space technologies.

While the motion in the amended form recognises the previous government for rebranding the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site into Lot Fourteen and putting some focus onto entrepreneurship and the space industries, we have taken steps including providing significant funding to carry that endeavour so much further forward.

Not only have we continued to fund initiatives totalling more than $33 million to support and expand the local space industry, which is helping to attract, grow and retain space companies in South Australia, but we are also investing directly with space companies themselves. There is $20 million of funding that is going towards a space assembly, integration and test facility that will be an anchor tenant in the new innovation centre at Lot Fourteen. We have partnered with companies including Fleet Space Technologies, one of the first recipients from the previous Labor government's Venture Capital Fund, which has enabled them to go on to such successful heights.

We have directly supported Southern Launch in some of the endeavours that the member for Morphett referred to before, helping them get through a period of significant uncertainty while they were waiting for approval from the federal government under the EPBC Act approval processes, making sure they could keep their business going—not just making sure they could get their facility up at Whalers Way at the bottom of Eyre Peninsula but also making sure they could continue conducting activities at Koonibba, which the member also referred to.

We have supported Myriota, we have supported Inovor and, of course, we are very proud that we have prominent South Australians like Katherine Bennell-Pegg, an Australian astronaut who is raising the profile so successfully of space as an industry which young South Australians can aspire towards and achieve significant lucrative long-term careers in, based right here in South Australia.

It is important also to recognise that we are starting to see some of those young South Australians take really bold and entrepreneurial steps for themselves in the space industries. I have had great pleasure spending time on a number of occasions with Robinson Aerospace Systems, who are taking the training and learning materials about how to construct satellites into our schools to teach kids while they are in high school what is involved in the space industry, trying to inspire that next generation.

We have a very prominent South Australian company that has recorded years of success, particularly in automotive electronics: Redarc now also develop a significant business in defence and space. For anyone who enjoys watching the Adelaide 500, you will see two Redarc defence and space-branded vehicles contesting in the V8 supercar series around Australia, getting their brand out not just to the rest of the country but to the world for their extraordinary capabilities.

There are so many other companies and organisations that are doing great work. In fact, I think it was only last sitting week that I went to the innovation precinct that the University of South Australia has created. Some of those with a few more grey hairs would remember it as the site of the former Night Train restaurant, which fortunately has been repurposed to a higher and better purpose.

The Hon. K.A. Hildyard: And Le Rox.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: And Le Rox.

The SPEAKER: Da Vinci's in the '80s.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I feel like I had a sheltered upbringing, hearing some of the suggestions from other members about what happened in that part of the city. But I had the great pleasure to meet with and see a demonstration of the technology that Paladin Space is developing, which effectively will see a low-orbit garbage collector that will pick up the fragments and detritus of waste that has been accumulating in space.

This saves companies like SpaceX millions of dollars a year by getting some of this debris out of the way so they do not need to alter their orbital travel to avoid the collisions that would occur at tens of thousands of kilometres per hour for their critical equipment as well. It does not take too much of an imagination to understand how that sort of capability could be deployed for other communications and defence endeavours in the coming years.

I do recognise the issue that the member for Morphett raised, that just after the election of the Albanese Labor government a significant pool of funding for a significant space program was withdrawn and reallocated into a much broader bucket of funding for much broader economic allocation. This was understandably not well received by the Australian space industry, understandably so.

We have made those representations to the government. In fact, only three or four weeks ago I flew to Canberra after the new cabinet was sworn in at the federal level and met with the new minister, Tim Ayres, who has already demonstrated a strong enthusiasm for supporting the Australian space industry. Before I could pitch it to him, he was quick to recognise South Australia's successful achievements and formidable leadership in the space industries area.

So I think it is really welcome for the member for Morphett to put this matter before the house and for there to be the opportunity to celebrate and recognise the significant achievements in South Australia's space industry. We want so many kids in our high schools to dream big about their endeavours once they leave school, and this is an industry with, to pardon the pun, limitless potential for people to have really rewarding, satisfying and lucrative careers for the long term in our state. It is really pleasing that this is an industry that enjoyed bipartisan support.

The SPEAKER: Great references there to Da Vinci's. I remember seeing the Eurogliders there in 1985. It was one of the great nights of my life. The member for Morphett.

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (11:20): I think there has been a fulsome debate. We really appreciate the appetite here in South Australia for space from the Minister for Defence and Space Industries. We welcome that. We also welcome the fact that there may be an opportunity with the new federal Labor government and the new minister to actually understand where space takes us. I also reiterate on this side of the house the opportunities we see in space and what it can bring not only to the economy here but also for rewarding careers for our next generation. I commend the motion to the house.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.