Dr KELLY (Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support) (10:50 AM) —I move:

The Australian government has provided funding to CSIRO for the design, construction and operation of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, radiotelescope. ASKAP will be the fastest survey radiotelescope in the world. The ASKAP telescope will deliver world-leading performance in applications including cosmology, understanding transient phenomena in the universe and obtaining a deep understanding of the galaxy in which we live. It is proposed that ASKAP be constructed on the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory in the midwest of Western Australia, a site identified internationally as the world’s best site for radioastronomy. The ASKAP telescope has confirmed Commonwealth funding of $111 million. In addition to the Commonwealth funding, the Western Australian government has allocated $4.08 million to support the radioastronomy projects in the midwest of Western Australia.

The Australian government, in collaboration with the government of Western Australia, has determined that CSIRO’s construction and operation of ASKAP is an essential component of Australia’s positioning to host the international Square Kilometre Array radiotelescope project. The SKA is a proposed $1.8 billion international project under development by scientists from 50 institutions across 19 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The SKA will be one of the largest scientific projects ever undertaken anywhere in the world. In 2005, in response to a call for proposals by the International SKA Steering Committee, Australia, Argentina, China and South Africa submitted proposals to host the SKA. In September 2006, Australia and South Africa were shortlisted as being acceptable sites. A final decision on the site of the full SKA is expected in 2011-12. Construction of the antennas and infrastructure for the ASKAP needs to commence in mid-2009 in order to meet project milestones to influence SKA technology and site selection decisions and to maintain Australia’s current world-leading position in radioastronomy. In its report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works has recommended that these works proceed subject to the recommendations of the committee. The CSIRO accepts and will implement those recommendations. On behalf of the government, I would like to thank the committee for its support, and I commend the motion to the House.

Question agreed to.