I move:

That this House:

(1) commends the Government for its Statement on Space, which provides a clear, focused, and strategic framework to support the growth and development of Australia's space industry;

(2) recognises the strong partnerships, collaboration, and shared commitment among industry stakeholders, researchers, Government agencies, and commercial operators that are driving innovation across the Australian space sector;

(3) acknowledges that Australia has a significant opportunity to develop trusted sovereign space services that Australians rely on every day, strengthening national capability and reducing reliance on externally controlled systems;

(4) notes the potential for a commercially scalable spaceflight ecosystem that provides pathways for Australian technologies, research, and payloads to reach application and deployment, ensuring a greater share of the value generated by mission activities is retained within Australia;

(5) further recognises that the development of domestic space platform capability presents opportunities to integrate Australian technologies into both Australian and international missions through satellites and multi-orbit constellations, enhancing Australia's role in the global space economy; and

(6) further acknowledges Australia's unique opportunity to build on its strong and credible foundations in the space sector to participate in, and capture value from, emerging space-based industries, including in-space manufacturing and biotechnology

The space sector is an incredible, incredible sector that's taken off in the last few years, especially in my electorate with Lot Fourteen. The space industry has made many achievements in many areas. This motion is about a statement that was made just recently by the Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and Digital Economy about direction for the space industry. The statement sent a clear message that Australia is serious about the expansion of the space industry and encourages global investors and partners to invest on Australian soil. There are some incredible, incredible businesses in my electorate in Lot Fourteen, which houses a lot of the space industry. Some of them include: Inovor, which is building satellites; Southern Launch, which is launching rockets into space and is in the member for Grey's area—he's here with us—; Myriota; and SmartSat, which is run by Andy Koronios and is doing some incredible work.

By investing $170 million through the National Reconstruction Fund, the government has demonstrated its enduring commitment to supporting Australia's resilience and security and thereby securing our place in a changing world in which space plays an incredible role. The five focal points of the statement recently highlighted Australia's space capability, where it provides unique opportunities, where it has market potential and where it supports national resilience. These focus points are trusted space services, space flight ecosystems, space platforms, exploration technologies and microgravity ecosystems.

For Adelaide in my electorate, the increased investment in the Australian Space Agency, run very capably by CEO Enrico Palermo, has allowed Lot Fourteen to commence new construction. This new construction, which will be Defence headquarters, strengthens Lot Fourteen as a powerhouse for this particular area. Defence headquarters is not only advantageous for Adelaide and Australia long-term but also enhances Australia's international partnerships. Namely, Defence HQ and Lot Fourteen at large will be substantial in Australia's carry out of AUKUS endeavours and therefore promotes the strengthening of the US-Australian relationship.

You don't have to look far when you talk about space without mentioning the name of Katherine Burnell-Pegg. The 2026 Australian of the Year and Adelaide resident has made outstanding significant contributions in drawing the nation's attention to the increasing importance of space and STEM to Australia's prosperity, resilience and security. And it's not just STEM and the space industry that stand to benefit from the statement on space. It'll be felt by everyday Australians in our daily interactions.

By investing in space, Australia is not only investing in critical technologies but also safeguarding broader industries in a rapidly changing world. When you think about space, it covers everything that you can think of that we are responsible for here in parliament, everything from security of the nation to agriculture to mining. There's not a single minute of the day where our lives are not touched by space. Just the simple Google apps that we have are all done through satellites. A lot of the weather patterns for our agriculture sector are all done through space. So it's not just about sending people to the moon and to Mars, even though that is fantastic and it would be great. It's also about our everyday capabilities and our cutting edge technologies, which is an area where we're making great advances. I mentioned some of the companies in my electorate that are doing incredible things that just five or 10 years ago would have been impossible. In South Australia we're launching satellites on rockets that were built in Adelaide, something that you would have thought was impossible a few years ago. But here we are in Australia, collaborating on joint ventures with some US companies on our telecommunications. Inovor Technologies, for example, is part of the big build of a big satellite with Optus. That's billions of dollars worth of work, employment and cutting-edge technology being built. The space industry, as in the statement that was made, is a commitment to Australia's future, and it provides confidence to Australian businesses.

Is the motion seconded?

The motion is seconded, and I reserve my right to speak.

Space can sometimes feel like a far-off concept that people think doesn't impact their day-to-day life. However, the reality is it is so crucial to everything that we do today. Satellite now ensures that we can use things like GPS and our banking systems. Essentially, our digital economy is underpinned by satellites and by space. The reality, in a modern world, is that our ADF now talks about five domains. It used to be land, sea and air. It's still those three, but it's now also cyber and space as domains. It is crucial for our country that we have a strong space sector from an economic perspective but also from a national security perspective.

This motion is interesting. It's six points—quite long. What makes it so interesting is what's not in it. It talks about a statement on space. Well done. Statements are important. It does not list $1 of funding from this government for the space industry in Australia. Not one. This government cannot put in a motion showing any tangible funding that they're providing to the space sector. And I've already gone through how important it is, but it's also the opportunities we have in Australia, given our geographical location in the Southern Hemisphere, to provide a vital link to worldwide satellite opportunities. There are also the research capabilities that can be unlocked through space. And there's not a dollar from this government.

In fact, it's worse than that. Under the coalition, the National Space Mission for Earth Observation was funded to the tune of $1.16 billion in the coalition's budget. Now, what did this government do with that funding? They cut it. They cut that funding. It would have created over 500 jobs, and it had an anticipated supply network of more than 100 Australian companies. This government can talk about a statement, but those in the industry know they've been abandoned by this government. They've been abandoned in the government's own words. This motion contains not $1 of funding for space, but then they have cut that vital opportunity for our country.

They've also cut other areas of space. The Australian Spaceports program was a $32.3 million co-investment initiative to build sovereign launch sites and cement Australia as a regional space hub—gone. In the 2023 budget, $59.7 million from the Australian Technology into Orbit program and the spaceflights tickets subprogram and $18 million from the Moon to Mars program—cut, gone under this government. They want to talk about a statement, and they have the gall to pat themselves on the back when they have cut time and time again from our space industry.

But in the budget, we saw another decision that made it so hard for the space industry to get ahead. There's no government support—gone. But if you're a startup or you are building a tech startup in the space industry, your life just got harder, because if you started that business and you're looking to get capital gains out of that business and hopefully sell it in the future—because most tech startups want to exit, and that's how they make their money—you'll get a tax increase under this government under the capital gains tax changes, the broken promise from this prime minister. You will pay 47 per cent tax for your hard work, for your sweat equity and for the risks that you have taken.

To show how out of touch this Prime Minister is when it comes to the space industry and tech start-ups, the Prime Minister said, 'Well, it won't impact businesses. You don't have to worry. The CGT changes won't impact you day to day. It's when you sell the business.' Genius, Prime Minister! You just showed every tech start-up that you don't understand their business, because they start with the ambition to sell. The stock options, the capital gains and the sellout are how they make their money. That is the whole point of the tech start-up sector, and in one sentence you showed your disrespect for and ignorance of the space sector and the tech sector in our country.

That's what happens when you have a prime minister and a treasurer who break their word to the Australian people. They promised they wouldn't change the capital gains tax and then changed it and didn't consult with anyone. They have both spent over 30 years in this House as MPs or staffers. It's actually closer to 50, if we're being honest. They have spent not one day in the private sector. It's no wonder Australian businesses cannot get ahead. This government does not understand you at all.

Supernovas, black holes, galaxies far away—humans have been fascinated by the skies for millennia. When people think of space, they think of things like the moon landing, Star Wars and shooting stars—or maybe aliens. What often gets missed is the infrastructure on the ground that powers the satellites, the exploration and the discoveries. It turns out that this infrastructure and technology is being used for a great deal more than exploring unknown corners of the universe.

Advancements in the space sector have tangible effects on our everyday lives, from medical imaging in our hospitals to crop data helping our farmers. That's why strategy and investment in this sector matters. The government's Statement on Space guides Australia's vision to strengthen our economy and national resilience by investing in a future made in Australia. It's about backing Australia's space industry to capture the growing opportunities of the global space economy and creating good Australian jobs at the same time. As the Minister for Industry and Innovation put it:

We want to see more Australian ideas commercialised, more Australian technology deployed globally, and more of the economic value harnessed here at home.

This statement is intended as a practical framework for collaboration between industry, researchers, governments and international partners. A prime example of this collaboration in building Australian technology is the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, which is in my home of Swan. It's a partnership between CSIRO, Curtin and Murdoch universities, UWA and Edith Cowan University. It has been serving more than 4,000 researchers across the country. They're involved with things as diverse as start-ups and supernovas.

Pawsey was built to process the vast amounts of data generated by Australia's investment in radioastronomy. In regional Western Australia sits the ASKAP, which is a part of the Square Kilometre Array project. It's a radio telescope that listens for radio waves coming from deep space—from galaxies, black holes and cosmic events that happened billions of light years away. Scanning the sky this way generates an enormous amount of raw information, far more than any single computer sitting next to the telescope could make sense of, and this is where the job of Pawsey comes in.

Pawsey has a supercomputer called Sentonix. It's the most powerful research computer in the Southern Hemisphere. It was delivered through government investment and has been ranked the fourth-greenest supercomputer in the world. How cool is that? And talking about cooling, it is actually cooled by a CSIRO-developed groundwater system that returns what is used with no net loss of groundwater and no impact to the aquifer. This saves around seven million litres of water a year. It runs on about 120 kilowatt hours of on-site solar. This is sovereign capability in practice, the kind of trusted service that Australians can rely on only by depending on system controls that aren't dependent on places elsewhere.

Pawsey operates on a partnership model rather than a vendor arrangement. The intellectual property generated on its systems belongs to researchers and institutions who use it, and the computing capacity is allocated on a merit basis, not sold to the highest bidder. Once again, this is such a smart process. Sovereign capability cannot simply mean assembling technology that was designed and owned somewhere else; it means Australian ideas—developed here, tested here and owned here. And Pawsey has been doing that for well over a decade. It is infrastructure already operating in Kensington, and it goes far beyond space into everyday life here, also, on earth.

In WA, that computing power has helped build a tool that can spot the signs of eye damage caused by diabetes just from taking a photo during a regular check-up. This also means that a patient can be screened at their local GP without needing to see a specialist first. In the Wheatbelt, where Curtin University is doing some work, they have looked at the genome of the pathogen behind yellow spot disease. Every day, researchers and students in Swan are quietly doing work, looking into our space and helping improve the lives of everyday Australians.

This is the second time this motion has come before this house, and it is just so emblematic of this government, because, again, there is a remarkable degree of self-congratulations in this motion. It praises the government for supporting the space sector while that same government has stripped funding from space programs, leaving regional projects fighting for certainty. The level of spin is just outrageous.

When the coalition launched the Australian Space Agency, we set out with ambition and with direction. Space is about sovereign capability, new manufacturing, medical research, national security and jobs in regional Australia. Sadly, Labor has abandoned that vision. At a time when every advanced economy is racing ahead in space technology, Labor is pulling Australia out of the space race altogether. And here is the irony: this is not a story of high-tech labs in capital cities in Australia; space is built and launched in the regions. Space is a regional industry, and, in my electorate of Grey, with no support from this Labor government, we are doing it. I've been to the launch sites. I understand that technologies are making lifesaving HIV medicines in space. At Whalers Way, near Port Lincoln, we have the only site in the world that can provide high-cadence launches and sun-synchronous launches. This will deliver major economic benefits, and it is already attracting rocket manufacturers from around the world, drawn by our unique geography. And Whalers Way is not alone. Grey is also home to an established launch activity at Koonibba and the world-famous Woomera Range, a key asset not just for Australia but for the free world, both now and in the past, in World War II.

Southern Launch is already delivering at Koonibba, working in genuine partnership with the Koonibba community, with further re-entry missions for international customers planned. The Koonibba Community Observatory, built alongside that community, is due to officially open later this year, and I will be there. This is an Aboriginal partnership done properly, delivering jobs and with a real stake in Australia's space future.

But the biggest prize is Whalers Way, and, right now, it's stuck. The remaining hurdles aren't technical; they're—you guessed it!—regulatory. Southern Launch has purchased offset land to protect the environment and maintain it to a high standard, with experts pointing to real conservation gains for threatened bird species. The company has done everything asked of it. Yet progress has stalled for months, held up by a vocal minority. South Australians are entitled to ask whether that passes the pub test. And, while we wait, others won't. The Northern Territory has offered Southern Launch a site near one of its major ports. Their government is taking notice. If South Australia won't act, the Northern Territory will.

This is bigger than one state project. Southern Launch is becoming a national capability and a national security asset. Allied demand for launch and test facilities is growing, and our AUKUS partners are looking for Australia to deliver. Other nations are looking to Australia to. That interest points to real manufacturing jobs right here in the electorate of Grey.

And the opportunity doesn't stop there. Other nations understand the stakes and are backing their sectors with serious government investment. Australia shouldn't be spectators while other countries build the sovereign capability we could be building ourselves. Launch sites and spaceports should be recognised as critical infrastructure. That recognition would unlock the funding needed to meet security standards. Regional infrastructure has to keep pace too. Ceduna Airport needs its runway extended to handle the people and the equipment the industry requires.

The opportunity in front of us for regional South Australia is enormous. Southern Launch has met every requirement asked of it, and what it needs now is certainty. I call on the federal and South Australian governments to resolve the outstanding approvals, recognise the sector for the national asset that it is and back Australian operators.

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made in order of the day for the next sitting.