Australia should start a space agency

Copy pasted from a post of mine from another forum: So I went to a forum today with Australia's first astronaut and I'm now convinced we should form a space agency. It obviously wouldn't be remotely possible under the current government (unless we suggest using new satellites to spy on Indonesia, boats, ABC, etc), and also, I'm not suggesting that we start building and launching rockets. What I am suggesting is that we form a government agency that works as a middleman between (for example) the CSIRO and NASA. Today, if an Australian wants to go to space, they either have to be a multi-millionaire who can afford to take a tourist trip to the ISS (or wait a few years for Virgin Galactic to clear their backlog), or they have to go and become a US citizen (or Russian, Canadian, etc). ------------------------------------------------- How it might work: - Infrastructure is partly (if not mostly) in place already in the form of the Woomera Test Range, which is actively used for the testing of advanced military and aerospace systems (from uni's, the ADF, US, UK, Japan). Australia also has plenty of dishes / telescopes for additional ground support. - Offer options for the US to build another military base or two along our north but at the cost of giving us a permanent discount on training our astronauts, hitching rides on their rockets, etc. - When in orbit, our Aussienauts would perform science missions previously done (via request) by NASA. Advantages: 1. Tie together the very fragmented astro/aerospace industry in Australia (we do have companies that develop and launch satellites, etc, as well as efforts in multiple universities developing related technologies). 2. Create some national pride / school-children role models that isn't / aren't related to sports. 3. If we provided a corporate tax-deduction for space businesses in Australia, we might be able to get more Australian companies (or at least companies employing within Australia) getting their foot in the door for involvement in companies like Planetary Resources (supplying support/sub-systems for them). Keep in mind too that it'd take probably a decade to start up an Australian space agency in earnest, by which time Planetary Resources should be intercepting asteroids, and other companies will be trying to follow in step. ------------------------------------------ Plus, if Canada can do it, so should we. Any other Aussies care to throw in their 2 cents, etc?