Australian Space Agency

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:35): My question is the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update the council about recent meetings in Europe to further our space industry and how South Australia can take advantage of the enormous opportunities the national Space Agency offers our state?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:35): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in the Space Agency. As I mentioned yesterday, from 31 March to 5 April I travelled to Europe for a business mission across a range of important sectors. One of the primary focuses for the mission was furthering our connections and relationships in the space sector. Of course, since then, we have announced the SmartSat CRC for Adelaide, which, of course, is well over $200 million.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: It's interesting that the members opposite interject about the Space Agency. I recall, when the Space Agency was announced, it was the time of the year when most of the lower house members—some upper house but most lower house—go to their schools for speech nights. It was reported back by the Premier, Deputy Premier and a number of other ministers that when they talked about the Space Agency in their address, the kids cheered, from small children in primary school to high school students. I don't know about you, Mr President, but when I was at school—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Allow the minister to answer the important question on the Space Agency.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I just want to make the quick comment—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The call is yours, the Hon. Mr Ridgway.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: When I was at school, I cheered when the local members stopped, and not in the middle of their speech, when they talked about something as exciting as the Space Agency.

The PRESIDENT: Keep on point.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: On our UK—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Order! Allow the Hon. Mr Ridgway to complete his answer.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I can raise my voice, but it's hard to talk over this number of people. On the UK leg of the trip, we met with the Satellite Applications Catapult. Catapults are essentially start-up or incubator organisations around innovation and connecting the industry and growing jobs. Their relationships function similarly to CRCs (Cooperative Research Centres). The productive discussions were about opportunities to collaborate and exchange. Interestingly, these people in Europe knew all about the potential for us to get the SmartSat CRC. They knew, even on the other side of the world, how important that would be to this great state. They even floated the idea of a space bridge, similar to the federal government's FinTech bridge that has been established between Europe and Australia.

I was also able to discuss the concept of the space bridge and the space industry in the afternoon with Mr Mark Field, a British MP, and British minister of State for Asia and the Pacific. He was incredibly passionate and excited about the opportunities for collaboration across the space industry. He was also very receptive to the idea of a space bridge and even said we should go further to sign an MOU in relation to that.

We have seen some well over 200 MOUs signed by the previous government without much to focus on whether they delivered anything. So I said to the Hon. Mr Mark Field that we are happy to collaborate but whether we got to the point of having an MOU was another matter, given that the track record of the former South Australia government was appalling, as we have seen through the MOUs. But I have invited him to visit Adelaide as part of his trip and especially to visit the Space Agency, and of course now we have the SmartSat CRC.

In Bremen in Germany, I was fortunate enough to have breakfast with three expat South Australians—

The Hon. K.J. Maher: What was for brekkie, Ridgie?

The PRESIDENT: You have an opportunity for supplementaries, Leader of the Opposition. Mr Ridgway, please go on.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: —three young men, who are—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Continue on the Hon. Mr Ridgway. Leader of the Opposition, please allow him to finish.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am being distracted—three young men from the Barossa and one from the Adelaide Hills who actually graduated here and are now involved in the German Space Agency. It was great to learn their insights into what a mature space agency is like and their suggestions for growing ours from scratch. That was very enlightening. With the national Space Agency, we will now have a career pathway for South Australians into these other, mature organisations but also for those sorts of people to come back and add value to our great state of South Australia.

In Berlin we toured Adlershof. This was one MOU I have witnessed, which was the signing of the MOU between Adlershof and Tonsley that I attended in Canberra last year. Adlershof is a bit like Tonsley but on a much larger scale; it is sort of super sized, if you like. We met with Astro- und Feinwerktechnik, a small manufacturing company specialising in microsatellites. Once again there was extreme excitement for them and opportunity for them to collaborate with South Australian companies to share their expertise and forge relationships. It was almost palpable in the room.

Finally, I was able to secure a meeting with the German federal coordinator for aerospace, Mr Thomas Jarzombek—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I probably haven't done that justice, the pronunciation, but I will provide the spelling to Hansard—and the German aerospace centre, DLR. Interestingly they have a budget of €1.7 billion. They were happy to discuss their new Galileo satellite system, and we discussed opportunities or potential for the low orbit polar satellite and for agribusiness and earth observations and the drone economy that will develop here in South Australia. Again, they were particularly excited with the opportunity the Space Agency and now of course the SmartSat CRC will present to us. They are very happy to be involved, and they will be visiting here later in the year.

So we are entering an extremely exciting new phase in our economy in South Australia, with the Space Agency, the SmartSat CRC and mission control and an emerging space industry. The world is starting to take notice. These meetings outline the importance of international links and collaboration in this sector and present a once in a lifetime opportunity to build an advanced smart economy that is on a global stage. I am keen to further these conversations and connections and really drive our space industry sector to the moon and beyond.