Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Publicly Supports Offer

David Penberthy interviews PM Anthony Albanese on FIVEAA

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly supported the offer from the European Space Agency to commit astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg to an ESA mission. In an interview with David Penberthy on FIVEAA on 13 May, the Prime Minister was asked whether a spaceflight mission should be a federal expense or “approached as a fundraising piece across the nation”.

This marks the first time the Australian Prime Minister has made a public statement of support for the #FlyKatherine campaign.

“She's a great Australian, and I think that all Australians are inspired by a great South Australian, indeed, our Australian of the Year.

I think people will get behind it. I know there's some private philanthropy that is behind it as well. What we're doing as a government, through our science ministry, but also through foreign affairs, is having a word. More than a word, we are lobbying hard, with the Europeans (which would be what [the mission] is a part of).

When Ursula von der Leyen was here, the Head of the European Union, I certainly lobbied her hard to make sure that we can deliver a good outcome there. I want to see a positive outcome. And it's something as well that had a very large price tag attached to it, and in a difficult budget, it being solely Commonwealth funded, was something that would have presented a real challenge, but we're working on it with the Europeans as well.”

Read the full interview here and listen here