National agency will double Australia's space industry

Italian economist Annalisa Piva has just completed a three-month stint with Defence South Australia, during which she produced a 125-page report on the benefits of establishing a National Australian Space Agency.

Australia is one of only two OECD nations alongside Iceland without a space agency.

However, a number of groups including the Space Industry Association of Australia and the South Australian Government have been lobbying for a dedicated national agency just weeks out from the International Astronautical Congress to be held in the South Australian capital Adelaide.

Piva compared the Canadian and British space agencies as case studies for her research report, arguing both countries were best practice predictors for a space agency in Australia.

The report found that if Australia could replicate the performance of the UK space economy in its first eight years after the establishment of a national space agency in 2010, 11,700 jobs and an additional AU$5.3 billion would be generated annually, a 132 per cent improvement on current figures.

This would take the annual turnover of the industry in Australia from AU$4 billion this year to AU$9.3 billion in 2025 and the number of people working in the industry from 11,500 to 23,198.