SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY
728. Ms D.G. D'ANNA to the Minister for Science:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's significant investment in
diversifying the Western Australian economy, including its support for
growing Western Australia's space industry. Can the minister update the
house on the Square Kilometre Array project,
including the recent land use agreement made with the commonwealth government
and native title holders; and can the minister outline to the house how the
government's significant investment is helping transform WA into a global
space and technology hub?
Mr R.H.
COOK replied:
I thank the member for the question.
It is an important one, and it is exciting to be on my feet this afternoon to
talk about more great science that is taking place in Western Australia. It is
exciting not only because these projects are
in themselves important exercises in science, but also because of the way in
which they stimulate jobs and other industries that go towards
diversifying our economy. The Square Kilometre Array, or SKA, is one of the
biggest global, multigenerational mega-science projects on the globe. It is a $2.9
billion investment to build the world's largest radio-telescope, to be
located in Western Australia and South Africa.
All members will have heard of the
Large Hadron Collider, which straddles the border of France and Switzerland. In terms of global science, this is on the same
scale. To give members an idea of the sort of scale we are talking about,
Professor Peter Quinn from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy
Research, which is guiding this project, has told us that the telescope will
generate the same amount of data in a single day as the entire world does in a year.
To provide some more context, once operational, the SKA will collect around 11
exabytes of data per day; five exabytes is the equivalent of all the words ever
spoken by human beings.
This is a significant project, and
we can see that computers like the Pawsey supercomputer are going to be at the
front end of receiving some of the early data and starting the process of
processing it. We can see just how big this project will be in terms of not
only the 132 000 low-frequency antennas that will need to be constructed as
part of this project, but also the construction and science jobs that will be
created and the legacy that the project will leave Western Australia.
I congratulate the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the
McGowan government on signing the Indigenous land use agreement with the federal Albanese government in conjunction with
the original scientists of the Yamatji area, the Wajarri-Yamatji
community. This is a significant milestone that will pave the way for this
project to take off. The training, education, culture and knowledge sharing
that will occur with this scientific endeavour will be passed on to generations of Western Australians. We are
already a world leader in terrestrial remote operations, automation and
robotics across the resources sector, and now we will see a lot of those
learnings, experiences and skills being transferred into this project and
developed into a wider industrial diversity strategy.
We have identified the
space industry as one of the nine areas in which Diversify WA wants to make a real
difference to the lives, jobs and future of all Western Australians. The
striking of the ILUA for the SKA paves the way for construction to begin, and Western
Australia will be front and centre of global science and the great discoveries that will happen as a result of this incredible
project. I am very much looking forward to the jobs that it will generate
today and into the future, for future generations.
The SPEAKER: The member for North West Central with
the last question.