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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-25 Daily Xml
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Dubai Trade and Investment Office

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): I have a further supplementary arising from the original answer, where the minister referred to meeting representatives from that part of the world and targeting space industries: can the minister outline which particular space industry companies in the UAE he or his department or this office is targeting or will be targeting?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:08): As I said, if the honourable member had been listening, it was an MOU with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency that focuses on industrial R&D collaboration, academic and research exchanges and capacity to build and drive the space industry growth. It is actually with a government space agency, like the national Space Agency that we have here, and Mission Control, and the SmartSat CRC is based here. This is, as I said—I repeat it again—an MOU with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, so it is a government to government MOU.

As the honourable member would know—and he should know, because I think there were many hundreds of MOUs signed by his former government and his very good friend the Hon. Martin Hamilton-Smith; they signed hundreds of MOUs—it is at the initial stage. Sadly for the members opposite, they didn't actually have the capacity to follow them up.

Now that we have this MOU in place, one of the functions of our representative there will be to actually expand on that and look for opportunities for South Australian initiatives to be used there. Certainly, with the great announcement in the United States in the last few days, with President Trump and our Prime Minister Morrison talking about the collaboration of going, firstly, to the Moon and then on to Mars—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, Mr President: the supplementaries have been quite succinct in their asking, and I don't think they called for the member's reflection on whether Mr Trump is going to Mars.

The PRESIDENT: You are asking about relevance. You are straying, the Hon. Mr Ridgway. We have 10 minutes left, and I am keen to get to the crossbench, so finish it off and sit down.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: That will present exceptional opportunity for investment—

The PRESIDENT: I said finish it off and sit down. Don't interpret my words.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: —across the space sector from all of our allies and friends that we do business with.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: One supplementary.

The PRESIDENT: I will allow one supplementary, as long as it's a sensible one, otherwise I am going to sit you down.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: It's not a sensible one.

The PRESIDENT: It's not a sensible one. Right, the Hon. Mr Darley.

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