SPACE INDUSTRY
485. Ms
J.J. SHAW to the Minister for Science:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's commitment to diversifying the Western
Australian economy, especially as it recovers from COVID-19. Can the
minister update the house on the work underway by the state government to
secure funding for projects that support and grow WA's space industry,
and can the minister outline to the house what opportunities these projects
will provide small businesses and startups in Western Australia?
Mr D.J.
KELLY replied:
I thank the member for Swan Hills
for this very important question. One of the commitments that the Premier made when Labor was elected to government was that
we would seek to diversify the Western Australian economy. One of the
opportunities that we have pursued as part of that is the opportunity for
growth in the space industry in Western Australia.
A lot of Western Australians do not understand that we have a long history in
the space industry. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
tracking station at Carnarvon was the largest tracking station outside the
United States and played a pivotal role in the Apollo missions right through to
Skylab and beyond. At its peak, over 200 staff were employed at Carnarvon. The
European Space Agency cannot operate without the facilities that it has here in
Western Australia.
As a government, we want to build
on the strengths that we have. We are world leaders in the areas of robotics,
remote operations and artificial intelligence, largely out of skills that we
have learnt through our expertise in the mining industry. We want to take those
skills and transfer them into the space industry. We are also leaders in the
management of data through the work that has been done at the Pawsey
Supercomputing Centre in preparation for the Square Kilometre Array. With those
advantages, last year we signed a memorandum of understanding with the
commonwealth to partner on projects to develop the space industry in Western Australia.
That memorandum is already starting to bear
fruit. This week, with Minister Andrews, we jointly announced funding for two
projects. The first is the Australian space robotics, automation and AI
command control complex, which will be established in Western Australia,
supported by $4.5 million from the commonwealth and $3.5 million from the
McGowan government. There is a great company
called Fugro that already operates a command and control centre at Gnangara.
It remotely operates underwater maintenance vehicles for the oil and gas
industry from its facility in Gnangara. Unlike remote operations for the mining
industry, which uses fibre-optic cable, this is done via satellite because
obviously oil and gas platforms are offshore and underwater. Fugro has managed
to overcome the issues of latency and can now have an operator operate those
underwater vehicles in real-time from Gnangara. We believe that we can transfer
those skills to the space industry and take up the opportunities that are
presented by NASA's return to the moon and, ultimately, to Mars. The
funding that we have put into that project run by Fugro will allow small
businesses, small to medium-sized enterprises, to really have an opportunity to
build on the skills that we have in the area of robotics and AI and take Western
Australian companies into the space industry.
The second project is the
Australian space data analysis facility that will be hosted by the Pawsey
Supercomputing Centre. It will receive $1.5 million
funding from the commonwealth and $750 000 from the McGowan government.
It will work with the WA Data Science Innovation Hub, established by this state
government through the new industries fund. Again, the space industry will
require the management of significant amounts of data. We have a comparative
advantage in that area because of the work that has been done in preparation
for the SKA. We see this as an opportunity for Western Australian companies to
be part of the space industry. Once we can manage data, we can produce products
for not just the space industry—the possibilities are endless. This
government is committed to create Western Australian jobs. The space industry
has great opportunities. As a government, we are working cooperatively with the
commonwealth to deliver jobs in Western Australia.