Inquiry into The Current State of Australia's Space Science & Industry Sector
Information about the Inquiry
On 19 March 2008, the Senate referred the following matter to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics for report no later than October 2008 with an interim report by 23 June 2008:
The current state of Australia's space science and industry sector, examining options to strengthen and expand Australia's position in fields that strongly align with space science and industry, giving consideration to any national strategic coordination requirements and taking into account findings and policy options of the National Innovation System Review, with particular reference to:
- Australia's capabilities in space science, industry and education, including:
- existing Australian activity of world-class standard, and
- areas in which there is currently little or no activity but that are within the technical and intellectual capacity of the country;
- arguments for and against expanded Australian activity in space science and industry, including:
- an assessment of the risks to Australia's national interest of Australia's dependence on foreign-owned and operated satellites,
- the potential benefits that could accrue to Australia through further development of our space capability,
- economic, social, environmental, national security and other needs that are not being met or are in danger of not being met by Australia's existing space resources or access to foreign resources,
- impediments to strengthening and expanding space science and industry in Australia, including limiting factors relating to spatial information and global positioning systems, including but not limited to ground infrastructures, intergovernmental arrangements, legislative arrangements and government/industry coordination, and
- the goals of any strengthening and expansion of Australia's space capability both in the private sector and across government; and
- realistic policy options that facilitate effective solutions to cross-sector technological and organisational challenges, opportunity capture and development imperatives that align with national need and in consideration of existing world-class capability.
The Committee invites written submissions which should be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Economics Committee
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
The
closing date for submissions is
18 April
2008.
Requests for extensions of time for submissions should be forwarded to the
secretariat.
The Committee welcomes additional submissions
responding to the questions raised in the Interim Report. The closing date
for these is Friday, 15 August 2008.
The Committee requests that where possible, submissions should also be provided by email to economics.sen@aph.gov.au, preferably as MS Word or RTF format documents. Notes to assist in preparing submissions are available from the website https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm or telephone the Secretariat on 02 6277 3540, fax: 02 6277 5719, or e-mail at the above address.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it is not protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02 6277 7799). Adobe also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at: http://access.adobe.com/. If you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretary.
If you need any further information, consult the Committee's website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/economics_ctte/inquiries.htm or contact the Committee Secretary on (02) 6277 3540 (phone), (02) 6277 5719 (fax); or by email to economics.sen@aph.gov.au or by writing to the above address.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Economics
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia