Australia’s local space sector is furious at the Albanese government for cancelling another space program, laying the blame squarely on Industry minister Ed Husic for axing a billion-dollar satellite mission to save money.
“It’s an extremely strong signal that Ed Husic is at war with the industry,” one senior industry source told InnovationAus.com.
A space analyst has also blasted the Industry minister’s “lazy attitude” on space capabilities, while the Opposition has labelled the decision “economic vandalism”.
The South Australian Labor government has also expressed disappointment with the move.
Mr Husic on Thursday confirmed the National Space Mission for Earth Observation (NSMEO) announced in the Morrison government’s final budget last year had been scrapped to save $452 million.
No tenders had been put to market or contracts signed, but the move is expected to cost 30 jobs, with public servants redeployed, and is seen as a blow to the domestic sector.
The full 15-year, $1.2 billion NSMEO program planned to build and operate four satellites to be launched between 2028 and 2033 to assist with Australian access to global earth observation data.
The satellites were to monitor climate change, agriculture and mining patterns, aid maritime surveillance and improve responses to natural disasters.
Without the satellites Australia will continue to rely on international partners for the earth observation data.
The founder of Gilmour Space Technologies, Adam Gilmour, said relying on other nations’ capabilities could slow the detection of bushfires in Australia because the satellites won’t necessarily prioritise observation of Australia.
“In terms of the way they’re tasked, the satellites only have a limited amount of tasking capability. You’ve got to move them to take a picture of something that you’re interested in,” he told InnovationAus.com.
“So there’s only a certain amount of tasks that any satellite can have before it runs out of energy. With our own satellites, we’d task them over Australia.”
The NSMEO was also billed as Australia’s way of creating a foundation for complex space missions over several decades while developing a genuine sovereign capability.
The government was to act as an anchor customer rather than simply handing out grants.
“It’s manufacturing, it’s high-tech jobs, it’s design, build, and operate. No kidding, this is the biggest thing to happen to our civil space industry,” the head of the Australian Space Agency Enrico Palermo said last year.
The whole-of-government mission was to be led by the Australian Space Agency with the support of Defence, Finance, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO.
“This was the smartest piece of public policy I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Space Industry Association chief executive James Brown told InnovationAus.com.
“Essentially, it went across all the government departments, it aggregated their current and future needs for Earth observation data, and then it came up with a plan over the next 10 years for Australia, in increasing leaps and bounds, to be able to provide that data from a sovereign source.”
Mr Brown agrees a reliance on partners’ earth observation data will risk access and could be more expensive.
“Overseas companies can charge whatever they like this sort of data,” he said. “We also know that we are making a decision that runs against the decisions that every other nation of the G20 is making.”
The industry group wants the Prime Minister to reverse the “intensely disappointing” decision it says undermines the government’s wider agenda to create a more complex economy through advanced technologies and manufacturing while making a meaningful impact on climate change.
“All of that relies on capability that the space industry provides,” Mr Brown said.
“So we see this decision as really short sighted and a massive own-goal for the Albanese government’s agenda on those issues.”
The NSMEO had remained in both the Albanese government’s first two budgets, including last month’s — even as other space programs were slashed, grants were paused and a new strategic plan to unite civil and defence sectors was jettisoned.
Despite scrapping the massive satellite program, Mr Husic in a statement said the Albanese government “values the role our space sector plays” and directed companies to wider industry support programs like the National Reconstruction Fund and Industry Growth Program.
But without a dedicated carve out for space – as there is for Defence, resources and medical science – local space companies will be at “the back of the queue” for these grants, according to Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst in Defence capability and strategy Dr Malcolm Davis.
“It’s a cheap excuse to say, ‘oh well, you can rely on the NRF’,” Dr Davis told InnovationAus.com.
Dedicated space programs are a way to build genuine sovereign capabilities and move Australia past being a “passive consumer of foreign provided space capabilities”, according to Dr Davis.
He said the axing of NSMEO to rely on partners is a sign the government is returning to the approach before the Australian Space Agency was established five years ago, almost to the day.
“That mindset is we just rely on others and let others do the work for us. And to me, that’s a rather lazy attitude on the part of Husic to take that sort of step. It is a bad day for space.
“I think it’s an ill-conceived and ignorant decision on the part of the minister, which is unfortunate. I do think maybe the space sector needs to step up and try [to] make their case stronger. So there’s work for us to do as well.”
The Opposition, which had prioritised space in its national manufacturing plan during the Morrison government, lashed the move, accusing Mr Husic of “economic vandalism”.
“Because of Ed Husic’s impulsive economic vandalism Australia will be weaker and more vulnerable, our economy will be less advanced and our industrial capacity diminished,” deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said.
“In cutting this program… Anthony Albanese has presided over one of the single worst industrial policy calls in Australian history.
“Space is a vacuum, and clearly so too is Labor’s industrial policy, as the space industries of other nations are lifting off, Australia’s is being taken off the launch pad.”
South Australian deputy premier and Innovation minister Susan Close has also reportedly said the state labor government is also “disappointed with this decision’’.
