James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to join with my colleague the member for Adelaide in forming the Parliamentary Friends of the Space Industry. The space industry is an exciting, vibrant sector which is going to grow exponentially in the years ahead. We've held two events in the last week. In fact, I've literally just come from one—the Pyne & Partners Tastes of Space event here on level 2. Last week, the industry association also held an event. It's been a great opportunity for the member for Adelaide and me to bring representatives from the industry into the building to meet fellow members of parliament who have an interest in this industry and talk to them about what their needs from government into the future are.

The most obvious one, which I think we'd all agree with, is that they really want all of us to work together as members of parliament to back their industry and, hopefully, have consistency of policy and approach from all of the major parties in this building. I certainly think we have a high likelihood of that being the case. There are some things that we argue about in politics, quite rightly. We should have our debates. But the future of the space industry is one that I'm sure we can very much form a unity ticket on. The opportunities are enormous, but the consistency of government policy and decisions in that area needs to be maintained with as little disruption as possible. So the member for Adelaide and I are both very committed to being a part of achieving that consensus and also being a conduit for the industry to bring issues into this building—whether directly to the executive government or to other parliamentarians—not just on what their legislative needs might be but also on developing a greater awareness amongst our leaders here in this building about this sector and where they're heading into the future.

There are literally tens of thousands of jobs to be created in the space industry; there's no dispute about that whatsoever. It's going to be the fastest-growing industry sector in our economy, something to be really excited about and an opportunity to be shared throughout the nation—although, obviously, the member for Adelaide and I are very jealously looking for as much benefit as possible for our home state, South Australia. Given that we have the Space Agency headquartered there and given the opportunities that flow out of defence procurement into space, we are hopeful of a very significant benefit to the South Australian economy. But the opportunities will be there throughout the country. It will be an enormous outcome for the industries that get the benefit from the technology that space brings. So I'm thrilled that we've formed this group, and I look forward to being a part of raising their issues and awareness in this building into the future.