Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the shadow minister for his interest in the SKA. It is belated but welcome. It is, of course, unfortunate that the opposition felt that they were not able to support this project. It is unfortunate, from their responses yesterday, that they felt it necessary to belittle this project.

This is a major piece of scientific infrastructure. This is a project of immense importance which this government has determined to pursue with vigour. This is a project which the former government failed to pursue with any vigour and which the former minister for science failed to embrace. This is a project that the former minister chose to ignore, in fact, because the former minister did not appreciate how significant Australia’s role in radioastronomy is, did not appreciate how significant this piece of infrastructure will be to world astronomy, did not appreciate the leading role that Australian radioastronomers have and did not understand the industrial and research implications for this project. Professor Brian Boyle, as an example, through CSIRO has led a team that has been able to demonstrate that to the world. Recently in Germany we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Max Planck Institute—