TRANSCRIPT – PAUL FLETCHER WITH LEON BYNER FIVEaa ADELAIDE – 5 SEPTEMBER

TRANSCRIPT – PAUL FLETCHER WITH LEON BYNER FIVEaa ADELAIDE – 5 SEPTEMBER

LEON BYNER: We have a plan to put an Aussie made rover on the moon but apparently that’s stalled and the space industry is saying well… we’re lost in space! Are we? Let’s talk to the Federal Shadow Minister for Science Paul Fletcher. Paul, good morning, are we lost in space here?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well Leon, our government had a very strong commitment to space, we committed to triple the size of the sector, we wanted to create up to 20,000 jobs, significant funding, but we have seen expressions of very real concern from the Space Industry Association Australia which have said in a document which has circulated to all members of that association that space is falling through the cracks in Canberra. There’s been no substantial engagement with the space industry and critical national space infrastructure projects totalling nearly $2.5 billion are stalled on departmental desks. So when you’ve got an industry peak body raising these kinds of serious concerns that does raise very serious alarm bells for the nation and of course for South Australia because of course our government was very committed to South Australia as the focus of Australia’s space programme that’s why we made the commitments that we did and so this is a very important issue for South Australia and for the nation.

LEON BYNER: Can you explain to the people of SA, what space exploration can mean for SA and why it’s important?

PAUL FLETCHER: Space is an area of growth and opportunity and so there are significant commercial opportunities with space so for example communications technologies being carried over satellite, but there are also the opportunities for Australia to have a bigger role in things like launching rockets and launching satellites and of course South Australia has a lot of very suitable territory for doing that and of course our government chose Adelaide as the location for the Headquarters of the Australian Space Agency it’s also a good fit of course with the very significant investment going into defence in Adelaide and in South Australia that occurred under our government; so there is a significant both commercial and defence opportunity for our nation when it comes to space - what we want to do and what our government Liberal and National government was focused on was building the skills and expertise in this sector encouraging more private sector businesses to operate in this sector whether they be companies that make satellites whether they be companies that carry out launches of rockets, whether they be companies that manufacture components that go into space vehicles are there all kinds of commercial opportunities here.

LEON BYNER: Now Ed Husic, the relevant Minister for the current government – federal that is - has made the point that since they were elected just over 100 days ago they claim that they have hit the ground running including ticking off on 115 million in funding to eight space industry companies that were left uncontracted by your side, the former government, what do you say to that?

PAUL FLETCHER: What I say is we had a very significant programme of activity and of course when an incoming government comes in there may be things that it’s open to them to do in terms of simply continuing work that was underway but when you have a major industry peak body, the Space Industry Association of Australia when the Chief Executive Officer James Brown of that organisation is putting out a newsletter to his members putting out a circular to his members which says after 100 days of Australia’s new government it appears to me that space is falling through the cracks in Canberra and there has been no substantial engagement with a space industry by any ministerial office in Canberra, space policy isn’t a vacuum - so that’s a plea for help that this is the industry body representing this growing sector, the sector that our Liberal National government put a lot of money into and we worked closely with Australian industry participants to try and build this sector with the view to creating up to 20,000 jobs with a view of tripling the size of the sector and this is a flashing danger sign that the new government not appear to have the confidence of the sector when you’ve got the peak body saying it appears to many after 100 days that space is formed through the cracks in Canberra.

LEON BYNER: Approximately how many people in SA is the space industry employing at the moment, do you know?

PAUL FLETCHER: I can’t say that number off the top of my head but what I can say is having had the chance to visit a number of companies, Lot Fourteen and other places there’s a lot of exciting activity going on…

LEON BYNER: What’s going on at Lot Fourteen?

PAUL FLETCHER: For example a company like Myriota, which is an Australian company that is developing and launching satellites which travel all around the globe including over Australia of course and what they do is carry data which might be for example coming from an agricultural context of might be data from a solar moisture monitor so that gets fed up to the satellite that gets put through a computer programme and that provides vital information to the farmer about he or she about how the decisions that he or she can take in managing the farm for example so this kind of technology, space technology has enormous commercial implications for sectors like agriculture, resources, and a whole range of other sectors and we’ve already got Australian businesses doing good work but the concern from the space sector peak body is that they’re not getting the ear of the new government and that is disappointing given the huge focus that our previous Liberal National government was putting into the space sector.

LEON BYNER: How does the space industry then get it’s hand up to where the government can see it?

PAUL FLETCHER: Well certainly this document that they’ve issued is about highlighting that they feel they’re not getting a fair hearing you know there was no representative from the space industry invited to Mr Albanese’s Summit last week there’s a lot of talk about that summit but nobody from the space industry there and so these are issues of concern and there are significant jobs at stake here significant economic growth at stake here and so certainly the Coalition is calling on Minister Husic and the Albanese government to move quickly to engage with the space industry because we’ve had a clear signal here but the sector feels that is not getting the focus it needs in Canberra.

LEON BYNER: Just quickly before I let you go, so how many people in the space sector is employing here in our state? Do you have a handle on that?

PAUL FLETCHER: I don’t have a number on that at the moment but what I can say is that our aim was to triple the size of the sector and to create up to 20,000 jobs so nationally it’s in the order of a few thousand jobs at the moment, we see that it has scope to get much bigger than alright.

LEON BYNER: Alright, Paul Fletcher is the Shadow Minister for Science

ENDS
 

Further information: Jack Abadee 0403 440 099