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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-04-30 Daily Xml
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SmartSat CRC

Mr PATTERSON (Morphett) (14:13): My question is to the Premier.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: How was Easter Monday on Jetty Road?

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is called to order. He has come back with some zeal following his Easter feasts. The member for Morphett has the call.

Mr PATTERSON: Can the Premier update the house about the federal government's investment in the SmartSat CRC and what it will mean for the space industry in South Australia and beyond?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): Can I just say that, five minutes into question time, thankfully we've got somebody sensible in the chamber who is asking a question about something—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which is of such significance for our state. Can I just say that, on 25 April, the Morrison Coalition government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —announced that a cooperative research centre would be established in South Australia specifically focused on satellite technology. In fact, it is going to be called the SmartSat CRC, and it is going to be based right here in South Australia. This is a massive, massive win for our state—$55 million from the Morrison government, and on top of that $190 million from in excess of 80 different organisations and companies here in Australia and globally.

Some of those companies are start-ups, like Myriota in South Australia, a company with a fantastically bright future. Some of those companies—in fact, 10 of them—are global multinationals in the space sector. Some of them are the best universities in our country. Also, as partners in this project we have both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). This couldn't be a bigger win for South Australia, with $245 million coming into South Australia over the next seven years to be looking at cutting-edge technologies around nanosat technology.

The good news is that this new facility will be based at Lot Fourteen. It's going to be based alongside the headquarters for the Australian Space Agency. This is really going to be an incredible precinct focused on key future industries like defence, like space, like cyber, like machine learning and critical areas for future jobs here in our state.

I would like to offer my congratulations on behalf of the people of South Australia to the people who brought together this bid, in particular, the University of South Australia, originally with Professor Tanya Monro and most recently with Professor Andy Koronios, working together with local firm Nova Systems. As we know with Nova Systems, this was a business which was founded by two South Australians: Jim Whalley (Chief Entrepreneur) and Peter Nikoloff.

Peter Nikoloff in particular worked with Andy Koronios at the University of South Australia for this very competitive and compelling bid to bring this wonderful research to South Australia. This research will support plenty of PhD students here in South Australia but, most importantly, it's going to be focused on bringing international investment for the commercialisation of this incredible technology, part of the $500 billion international global space sector.

As I said, congratulations to everybody involved: the universities, the private sector, the start-ups and in particular the people who work within Defence SA. In that regard, I would like to acknowledge the work which is being done by the chief executive, Richard Price, and Nicola Sasanelli, who has been working so hard on this bid for a long period of time. I encourage all members to become familiar with the work of the SmartSat CRC. It will open later this year. It will be at Lot Fourteen. If you haven't been down there yet, get down there, get excited.

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