Judith Collins, Minister for Space, speaking at the 39th Space Symposium at Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 10. Photo / Space Foundation https://www.flickr.com/photos/space_foundation/53645313201/in/album-72177720316137383/
Our Minister for Space is wasting no time ensuring New Zealand is on the world stage, heading on another overseas trip this weekend.
Judith Collins sets off to Europe on Sunday, attending the OECD Science Ministerial Conference in Paris.
It’ll be followed by commemorating Anzac Day at events in Ypres, Belgium in her capacity as Defence Minister.
It’s after Collins spoke at the Space Symposium in the US this month, promoting New Zealand’s rapidly growing place in the sector.
She told The Front Page that it’s important that she goes on these trips to highlight our space industry and the financial opportunities there, joking “I’m just after the money for the country”.
“It’s all very well being well thought of in the world, but we need to grow the New Zealand economy.
“We have a cost of living crunch that people are going through at the moment. We’re all going through it, but our country cannot just continue to do what we’ve been doing and thinking that that’s going to pay for the lifestyle that we expect.”
According to Deloitte, in 2018 and 2019 New Zealand’s space industry contributed $1.7 billion to the economy – but, Collins thinks by now it should be three or more times larger than that.
She said our people, innovators, and creators in the sector are very well-respected in the US.
“We [were] number four last year in the number of launches in the world after the US, China and Russia. It’s a long, long way from three to four, but we’re there,” she said.
As well as senior Nasa officials, the director-general of the European Space Agency, and US firms - the minister also met with the Governor of Colorado Jared Polis while in Denver.
It prompted the possibility of a memorandum of understanding between Colorado and New Zealand covering technology, science, geothermal, and universities.
“Colorado has around about the same population size as New Zealand. So, we’re looking at how we can do more around the science and tech area and Colorado’s gone out of its way to be attractive to New Zealand businesses who need a US base.”
On her upcoming trip, Collins makes a point: you’ve got to be in it to win it.
“It’s just so important that we’re there in the game. We’ve signed up to the Horizon Europe research [programme] which the previous Government signed up [to]. We agreed with it. We absolutely support it.
“We have to understand we can’t do everything by ourselves. And working with other people and like-minded people is so important. We’ve got to be there. If you’re not there, I’m sorry, you’re forgotten.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about how Collins is spruiking our space industry and how the sector will make NZ better off.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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