Michael West’s Blog

A friend in the public service here in Canberra has informed me, and to quote the relevant announcement, that…

“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:

1. Australia’s capabilities in space science, industry and education, including:
   
   1. existing Australian activity of world-class standard, and
   2. areas in which there is currently little or no activity but that are within the technical and intellectual capacity of the country;
2. arguments for and against expanded Australian activity in space science and industry, including:
   
   1. an assessment of the risks to Australia’s national interest of Australia’s dependence on foreign-owned and operated satellites,
   2. the potential benefits that could accrue to Australia through further development of our space capability,
   3. 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,
   4. 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
   5. the goals of any strengthening and expansion of Australia’s space capability both in the private sector and across government; and
3. 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.”

Although the new Federal Labor government is going a little review/inquiry crazy, this is a welcome development. Kudos to Democrat Senator Natasha Stott Despoja for initiating this inquiry and for Liberal Senator Grant Chapman and others for co-sponsoring it. It is also good to read here in The Australian that the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, is supportive as well, which is more than can be said about his predecessor. Hopefully those conducting the inquiry will have a keen sense of history and become familiar with the Madigan Report (1985), the ‘An Integrated National Space Program’ report (1992) and Space: ‘A Priority for Australia’ (2005) and other similar inquiries of the past. This inquiry will also complement the soon to be released Decadal Plan for Space Science by the Australia Academy of Sciences’ National Committee on Space Science. I’ve contributed a little bit to its preparation, mainly in the education and public outreach arena, but not much.

Details about how to make a submission can be found on the relevant Senate Economics Committee website.

Not that I care too much for Victorian politics but Steve Bracks has just quit politics after 8 years as Premier. Kudos to the ABC News site for being the first out with the news here. Bracks apparently cites personal reasons for his resignation, which probably includes his son’s recent drink driving adventure. I admire Bracks for recently sticking it to the Howard Government over control of the Murray-Darling Basin, particularly when it seems the that he and Malcolm Turnball were close to negotiating a solution, which the Prime Minister overruled just to score some political points. It seems the attempts at Federalism by Howard et al will leave them with egg on their face, even if the High Court was to uphold the Commonwealth’s position because it will leave no one with total control of water in the Basin. It will be divided between the States and the Commonwealth which is just as bad as it is now.

Anyway, good luck to Bracks in his new life outside the political sphere. I wonder how long until he is consulting for Macquaire Bank or similar, like another former Labor state Premier.

Last night I went to a talk by Malcolm Turnbull, the Federal Minister for the Environment & Water Resources, held by the Canberra Division of Engineers Australia. The talk was entitled “Vision and community expectations of engineers in relation to water, energy and environmental matters”. To be honest I was a little underwhelmed. It was obvious that Mr Turnbull is a very good orator and you would expect that from someone who was a very successful solicitor and businessman and now a politician - his bio is here. He was engaging and drew examples from a wide range of fields and epochs, including ancient Rome and the engineering endeavours of the Eqyptians. But for me the problem was the lack of content, he didn’t really talk about much that I (or the rest of the audience) weren’t aware of already. He basically just summarised the key environmental challenges facing Australia - water scarcity and climate change and stressed that engineers were crucial to tackling these problems. Sure… but in what way? What can we keep doing? What do we need to do better? What more does the community expect from us? Where are the skilled people and the other resources going to come from? I guess I was left with more questions, than insights into his view on the issues at hand.

To be fair, my attention was held completely for the 20-25 minutes that he spoke and he came across very measured and didn’t politicize the issues too much - which is unusual for a politician in an election year. Also, it was interesting to hear his views on how climate change should be addressed. Principally, he said the three main areas where real benefits can be made were…

1. Increased energy efficiency - whether in the home or industry, for example sustainable buildings, insultation, etc.
2. Forestry policy - interestingly reversing deforestation, in particular the destruction of rainforests in Brazil and Indonesia, can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 20%. Hence, the Federal Governments funding of forestry initatives in Indonesia recently.
3. Zero emission energy production - solar, nuclear, bio, wind, etc. Here Mr Turnbull harped on a bit about clean coal & CO2 sequestration which I think is a bit of a pipe dream and is touted so as not to put the coal industry offside etc.

Anyway, it was interesting hearing the Minister speak but it would have been nice if there was a bit more ‘meat’ to complement his well crafted words. I would be curious to hear what others think about the proposed three-pronged response to climate change outlined above.