Page 839 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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individuals or schools. That is not a constructive way forward to ensure that school cultures are safe and supportive.
MR WALL: Minister, why was an advisory committee established, as opposed to an independent inquiry?
MS BERRY: I refer the member to my previous answer.
Government—space industry policy
MS ORR: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, since the political announcement that the headquarters of the Australian Space Agency will be moved to Adelaide what steps has the ACT government taken to make sure that Canberra still gets some economic benefits from the creation of the agency?
MR BARR: I thank Ms Orr for the question. Last week the ACT became the first jurisdiction to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Australian Space Agency. It represents our commitment to advance and grow the local space sector in an industry that is globally worth $420 billion annually and growing at 10 per cent each year. This is a partnership that will ensure that the ACT will continue to see growth in our space industry. The Australian Space Agency has been tasked with tripling the size of our nation’s industry to $12 billion and to create 20,000 jobs by 2030.
The MOU we have signed ensures that Canberra remains front and centre of this significant opportunity and that the ACT government will continue to support and promote the range of skills and expertise that the Canberra region has to offer. We do so because we understand that a successful Australian space industry requires a nationally collaborative approach to the development of the industry. For that reason, we were the first state or territory in recent times to advocate for the creation of the Space Agency to bring a focus to the Australian industry.
Our leadership in this area will continue and, despite what was a blatant political decision to relocate the headquarters away from Canberra to Adelaide, we are not going to let this setback stop our local space sector benefitting from the agency’s establishment.
MS ORR: Chief Minister, which jurisdiction has the most space jobs?
MR BARR: Given this city’s long and direct involvement with some of the biggest events in international space exploration history—from the support for the first moon landing in 1969 to the Mars Phoenix landing in 2008—the answer should not surprise anyone. Canberra has the most jobs of any state or territory in the space industry.
We are home to one in four jobs in the Australian space industry. These jobs comprise personnel engaged at many of our local innovative SMEs, global exporters and multinational primes with large space programs, as well as those working in the industry at our higher education institutions, particularly the ANU and UNSW Canberra, both of which offer space research and development capability.
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