Page 2507 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018
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(a) space exploration is the core work of the Commonwealth;
(b) Canberra is home to every major Commonwealth stakeholder except the Bureau of Meteorology;
(c) co-locating the Australian Space Agency with the Department of Defence, national security agencies and key government agencies will foster greater collaboration and efficiency, and will provide significant opportunities for the commercialisation of Australian space technologies; and
(d) bilateral and multilateral space treaties raise issues across a wide range of portfolio areas, which require a whole-of-government approach to negotiations, and the skills and expertise required to negotiate complex international agreements are concentrated in Commonwealth Departments in Canberra;
(5) also notes that making Canberra the permanent home of the Australian Space Agency will foster partnerships with significant national research and education institutions, and highlights that:
(a) the Australian National Concurrent Design facility at the University of NSW Canberra combined with the ANU National Space Test Facilities provide Australia’s only capability to conceptualise, design, build, test and monitor spacecraft;
(b) ANU and UNSW Canberra both have satellite operation capabilities with ground station infrastructure to support satellite missions; and
(c) Canberra is committed to building a skilled workforce pipeline, and is currently providing cutting-edge STEM training and space-focussed education programs, entrepreneurship outreach initiatives;
(6) recognises that Canberra is on the cutting edge of space technology and innovation, and has the necessary infrastructure and workforce to complement the Australian Space Agency’s central role in the space industry, particularly:
(a) almost one in four Australian space sector jobs are in Canberra;
(b) Canberra has significant space exploration infrastructure, including one of only three NASA Deep Space Network facilities in the world, satellite ground stations and world-class facilities in areas such as Space Situational Awareness, earth observation, debris monitoring and positioning, navigation and timing infrastructure; and
(c) there is significant private sector space capability in Canberra, including companies such as Q-Labs, Liquid Instruments, Locata, Shoal Group, EOS Space Systems, Geoplex, Geospatial Intelligence, Clearbox, Equatorial Launch Australia, Via Sat, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Airbus Defence and Space; and
(7) calls on Members of this Assembly to continue to reinforce to federal colleagues at every opportunity that Canberra plays a vital role in supporting Australia’s space industry, and is the rightful national home of the Australian Space Agency.
It is the final frontier. It has been the subject of unquenchable human curiosity for millennia. It fills us with awe and wonder, sparks our imaginations and holds the
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