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As you will know, the Government established the Australian Space Agency last year to drive growth in the space industry and create new business and job opportunities.

The agency will help triple Australia’s space economy to $12 billion and create up to 20,000 jobs by 2030.

Our Government has committed over $73 million for the agency since 2018–19.

This includes $19.5 million for a Space Infrastructure Fund to support space projects across the nation over the next three years.

We’ve already announced that Adelaide will be the home of the agency, along with two new national space facilities.

Namely a Mission Control Centre and a new Australian Space Discovery Centre, at the cost of $6 million each.

These projects and the Space Agency will deliver investment and jobs to the South Australian economy.

Over the past few days, you’ve had the opportunity to explore ways to break down barriers to collaboration.

I commend everyone here who contributes to this effort as part of their day-to-day work - CRCs, Industry Growth Centres, science agencies, unis and businesses.

I’d like to note that the CRC program and Industry Growth Centres Initiative are complementary initiatives enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of Australian industries.

CRCs and Industry Growth Centres work together to be catalysts for increased and more productive industry-research engagement.

Growth Centres directly assist industry and business to prosper by identifying priorities in key growth sectors.

Industry and researchers draw on this information to leverage funding through sources such as the CRCs.

Growth Centres can be partners in CRCs or CRC Projects and CRCs are encouraged to consider Growth Centre strategic visions to better understand government priorities.

Both CRCs and Growth Centres are doing a great job and the Morrison Government remains committed to supporting them.

The CRC program is ongoing, with $755 million slated for funding its two streams - CRCs and CRC Projects - over the forward estimates.

CRC Round 21 is open and stage one applications close on 1 July, so you may want to take note if you are putting in an application.

I expect to announce the outcomes of Round 21 in December.

Regarding the CRC-Ps, I hope to announce the outcomes of Round 7 next month.

As part of the 2019 election, the Government committed to allocate $20 million through Round 8 of the CRC-Ps to reduce plastic wastage and boost plastics recycling.

I expect to provide more information on Round 8 next month.

To finish, thank you to the CRC Association for putting together another great annual conference.

I look forward to continuing to work with you to strengthen Australian industry, drive economic growth and create more Australian jobs.

Thank you.