Professor Brian Schmidt

And indeed, I will be having a conversation with the minister this afternoon about this very subject.

Astronomy has been driven by technology for the last 150 years.

And ESO has the largest suite of telescopes.

And telescopes are platforms for technology.

The reason Australian astronomy is so strong is both in the optical and the radio domains, we have been outstanding builders of technology into instruments that look at space.

So when you no longer have the thing to put your technology on, it's kind of hard to justify to build the cutting edge new technology.

Technology that, for example, helped us do our laser communications with Artemis last week from Mount Stromo Observatory by the same team that builds the instruments on ESO.

So when you don't have that to mount your instruments and ask the big questions,

You don't build those instruments and you quit contributing to the big questions in astronomy that to this day are some of the biggest questions in science.

And as I say, continue to, in addition to creating the knowledge, create all these spillovers that have great societal benefit.