The Australian Academy of Science is looking at the policy stars  

Space science and technology is one of the federal government’s national manufacturing priorities and the Academy has a plan to make that meaningful

The Academy proposes $80m  over ten years for Australian research payloads and then spacecrafts to create a sovereign research capability, including weather, remote sensing, earth observation and global comms.

This will take some organising and the Academy accordingly calls for a “lead scientist” charged with “strategic science policy advice, facilitating cross-sector engagement and international collaboration, and fostering capacity development initiatives.”

It will also require a workforce, which existing STEM skilling cannot meet. The paper thus proposes a plan that complements the 2019 Defence Industry Skilling and STEM strategy.

Which CMM suspects government will welcome, as long as it does not compete with the already announced need for nuclear scientists and techs, to work on submarines. Last month Defence Minister Dutton announced 300 “nuclear science and engineering” undergraduate scholarships.