Mike Symon (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Australian Astronomical Observatory Bill 2009 and cognate bill. It is a pleasure to follow on from the member for Indi in this debate. The main bill establishes a new authority, the Australian Astronomical Observatory, whose purpose is to conduct world-class scientific research, using a large observatory in Australia, currently known as the Anglo-Australian Observatory. It has a long and proud history of cutting edge world-class research. The Anglo-Australian Observatory was opened 36 years ago, as a joint initiative, by the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom. Up to that stage, most of the world’s biggest observatories had been situated in the Northern Hemisphere. The establishment of a large observatory in the Southern Hemisphere was a great leap forward for Australian science. To this day, constant innovation has kept the observatory, which, for its mirror size, is still one of the top 25 in the world, at the cutting edge. Unfortunately, as we have already heard, the United Kingdom government has advised it will withdraw its funding from the Anglo-Australian astronomical observatory from 1 July 2010. The United Kingdom government has been a partner in operating this research facility for over 35 years. We must commend it for its work, in partnership with Australia, in building one of the world’s finest observatories. The Rudd government is committed to fully funding this world-class facility when the United Kingdom withdraws its financial involvement.

Schedule 1 of the transition bill repeals the Anglo-Australian Observatory Telescope Agreement Act 1970, which will, in effect, dissolve the current Anglo-Australian Telescope Board, while schedule 2 of the transition bill provides transitional provisions transferring the role of the Anglo-Australian Observatory to the Australian Astronomical Observatory, which will be an entirely Australian entity.

The transition bill also provides for the smooth transfer of assets, liabilities, employees and other matters to the new organisation. The observatory’s employees will be transferred into the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research under the provisions of the Public Service Act 1999, with full transfer of their terms and conditions and maintenance of their accrued entitlements. Obviously, with the date of 1 July 2010 fast approaching, these bills need to go through parliament so that the federal government can meet its obligations to have the funding and operating body in place.

This legislation reflects the supplementary agreement to the Anglo-Australian Observatory agreement, signed between the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom, that confirms the end of the funding from the UK as from 1 July 2010.

These bills enact the government’s commitment, announced in the 2009-10 budget, to fully fund the observatory and its activities. This is a great opportunity for Australian scientists to continue their leading-edge work under a new name, with 100 per cent Australian funding. Investments being made by the Rudd government, like this funding, help build Australia’s reputation as a centre of research and innovation. The Australian Astronomical Observatory Bill allocates an extra $20.9 million in funding across the forward estimates to continue the world-class work of the observatory. This includes a net increase in funding from the Australian government of $4.138 million for the current financial year. The bill establishes the Australian Astronomical Observatory within the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research.

The observatory will have functions relating to astronomy and to operating Australia’s national observatory for optical astronomy, but it will also undertake research to develop and manufacture astronomical instruments—a very specialised field. The Australian Astronomical Observatory will provide support to the optical astronomy community in Australia, and a position of director of the Australian Astronomical Observatory will be created. The bill also establishes an advisory committee to provide independent expert advice on the performance of the astronomical functions, and this committee will play an important role in the management of the observatory and in setting its research goals.

The history of the Anglo-Australian Observatory is something all Australians should be proud of. The initial decision to construct and operate a telescope at Siding Spring dates back to 1967. The original agreement between Australia and the UK was signed at a government level back on 25 September 1969 and was to provide for the establishment and operation of a large optical telescope. This agreement was subsequently implemented by the Anglo-Australian Telescope Agreement Act 1970. The observatory, the largest optical observatory in Australia, was built on Siding Spring Mountain near Coonabarabran in New South Wales and opened in 1974. The headquarters of the board and the instrumentation laboratory are both located at Epping in New South Wales. It was in 2001 that the UK government decided its involvement with the Anglo-Australian Telescope would end due to budget cutbacks in science, and then a supplementary agreement was signed between the governments of the UK and Australia in 2005 that provided for a reduced commitment from the UK, with a transfer to Australia of ownership and responsibility for the telescope to occur on 1 July 2010.

At a mirror width of 3.9 metres, the observatory is still, as I said, in the top 25 of observatories in the world for the width of the mirror. It is one of the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere. It was built—and we should remember this—so astronomers could explore in detail the skies of the Southern Hemisphere. Some of the most exciting regions of the sky can best be viewed from our part of the world. These include the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy and its nearest neighbours, the Magellanic cloud.

What should be noted about the observatory is the ability of scientists and researchers to continually innovate and develop new ways to maximise the output of the observatory, keeping it at the cutting edge of international observatories. The Anglo-Australian Observatory can be used in many different configurations, each requiring different instruments or detectors to collect and analyse the light received by the telescope. Most astronomers use charge coupled devices, CCDs, to collect data—although some of us might think CCD stands for something else. Although some of the following descriptions are reasonably technical, I think it is worth mentioning them so that members of the House and the Australian public can get a feel for the work of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The CCDs, these highly sensitive solid-state devices, convert light into digital signals which are then collected and stored on computers for further analysis. And they are not all that foreign to most of us, because you will find a CCD inside every digital camera—obviously not of the same quality or standard as you will find in a very large telescope, but these days a charge coupled device is a very common item. I suppose in some ways that is due to the work done by large observatories and laboratories in making that type of equipment available for research use. It flows down to consumer use sooner or later.

Over the past decade the AAO has pioneered the use of optical fibres in astronomy and currently leads the world in this work. The latest of these instruments, the two-degree field facility, uses flexible optical fibres to collect the light from up to 400 faint stars or galaxies from a two-degree field of view. This instrument dramatically improves the efficiency of the observatory, which has traditionally observed one object at a time. It allows astronomers to carry out previously impractical observing projects.

The two-degree field galaxy redshift survey conducted in 2003 was referred to as ‘undoubtedly Australia’s largest contribution to astronomical research ever’, by cosmologist Carlos Frenk from the University of Durham in July 2003. At the completion of that survey, it was the biggest galaxy survey ever made in the world, producing a map showing the locations of more than 221,000 galaxies in outer space. When you consider that our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains somewhere between 100 billion to 400 billion stars and has a diameter of 100,000 light-years, producing a map of 221,000 galaxies is indeed a phenomenal accomplishment. The information in this map was then used to make the most precise estimates to date of the universe’s mass and density. The map was used to estimate the relative amounts baryonic matter—which is normal matter—dark matter and the recently discovered dark energy.

Recent innovations at the Anglo-Australian Observatory have seen the upgrade of the two-degree field facility spectrograph to AA Omega, which enabled even more galaxies to be observed concurrently—up to 400 at once. Up to this point in time, over 300,000 galaxies have now been observed in this survey. In this survey, the Anglo-Australian Observatory is focussing on the most distant measurement of dark energy and will be the first in the world to do so. I certainly look forward to hearing the results of their ambitious scientific project.

Whilst discussing the activities of the Anglo-Australian Observatory, I would like to bring to the House’s attention some exciting new planetary discoveries. It was only in December last year that an international team of planet hunters found three new planets orbiting a star that is very similar to the sun, and it is nearby. To find them, the astronomers employed the Doppler wobble technique, which measures how stars are tugged around by the gravity of their planets, thus revealing much about planets. These three planets orbit the star 61 Virginis, which is virtually a twin of the sun and relatively nearby as far as stars go—it is only 27.8 light-years away from the earth. At this stage, it cannot be determined if these planets are rocky; however, it is estimated that they have masses ranging from 5.3 to 24.9 times that of the earth’s. Consider that Neptune in our solar system has a mass 17 times that of the earth’s. These discoveries point the way to the detection of potentially habitable worlds within a few decades or, who knows, maybe even within a few years. These planets were found by Australian, American and British astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Observatory in New South Wales and the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

It must be noted that the Anglo-Australian Observatory is also one of the world’s top builders of astronomical instruments, which is a highly specialised field of technology. The AAO has built instruments for some of the leading observatories, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope array, and Japan’s Subaru telescope in Hawaii. AAO specialises in the building of multi-object spectrographs and associated mechanisms. The development of these instruments is important not only for Australia but for the world.

I would like to briefly mention the latest research of the Anglo-Australian Observatory—the HERMES high-resolution spectrograph project. Unravelling the complex formation history of our galaxy is the primary science driver for HERMES. This process of galactic archaeology involves finding groups of stars that were born together in the same cloud of gas and dust through their chemical abundances, a common fingerprint that uniquely identifies them. By measuring precise chemical abundances for a million stars, it should be possible to identify the clouds from which our own galaxy was formed. Combining this with estimates of the age of the stars and an analysis of their orbits around the galaxy will help to reveal a picture of the sequence of events that produced the Milky Way. This instrument should be available in 2012 for astronomers to continue working on the sequence of events that led to the production of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

Whilst talking about matters astronomical, it would be remiss of me not to mention Australia’s bid for the Square Kilometre Array telescope. The SKA telescope is a $2 billion project and Australia is in competition with South Africa at the moment in the bidding process. The SKA telescope would be 50 times more sensitive and survey at 10,000 times the speed of current radio telescopes, with the ability to see back to the birth of the first stars and galaxies. With the involvement of 17 countries, the SKA telescope is one of the largest and most ambitious international science projects ever devised.

If Australia wins the SKA, it will be a massive boost to our standing in international science and research and it will create many highly specialised jobs over the 50-year life of the project. Of course, with that will come other opportunities such as ICT projects and the implication for Australian industries across fibre optics, data storage, transport and many other areas.

In summary, these bills will establish the Australian Astronomical Observatory to ensure continuation of the world-class work of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The Rudd government has made a commitment to fully fund the observatory and establish this fully Australian entity. I look forward to hearing about future innovation and research at the new observatory. I commend the bills to the House.

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