That's not Queensland parochialism talking; it is good old-fashioned science. The simple fact is that for a geostationary orbit - and most of the satellites Australia needs are geostationary ones - the closer you are to the equator, the heavier the payload you can lift because you harness the rotation of the Earth to boost the speed of the rocket. The further you are away from the equator, the smaller the payload you will be able to achieve .

All of this makes Cape York, or maybe Thursday Island, the ideal Australian launch pad. Not only are they close to the equator, but there are no populated areas downrange, to the east, in the event of a rocket failure.

Michael Trout, who was the MP for Barron River, and whose family has strong ties to Cape York, is one person who knows how important Queensland can be.

"Cairns and Cape York have a unique contribution to offer Australia's space ambitions," he told me.

"Port access at both Cairns and Weipa have Far North Queensland well placed to provide the services needed. Moreover, the Peninsula Development Road has been upgraded and is well on its way to being sealed by 2020."

Of course, never let science get in the way of politics. No sooner had the announcement been made, than the South Australian government was holding its hand out demanding a piece of the action. It is not surprising; South Australia has become the mendicant state of Australia. However, a rocket launched from Woomera would be at a 15 per cent disadvantage compared to one launched from Cape York.

What's more, Queensland already has a strong space industry community with a proven history in Australian space programs. As one industry insider pointed out to me, if we do not require military specification rockets, then much of the componentry can be built in Queensland, even perhaps in Cairns.

What Queensland lacks is a political champion to ensure that an Australian national space agency gets its rockets off the ground from Queensland. That champion must also be willing to fight Canberra's proven ability to bugger things up.

The truth is that Australia established an Australian Space Council in the 1990s, complete with its own Act of Parliament.

It even produced a five-year plan in 1994, but all its money was spent on its own internal costs, and it never got so much as a paper plane off the ground, let alone a rocket.

To say we haven't tried this before is pure myth: we have, it is just that nobody wants to remember the failure.

To succeed this time, the government needs to work with the private sector instead of trying to hamstring it.

SpaceX and Orbital ATK are two private sector companies at the cutting edge of space systems. They show what can be done to get into space with a minimum of government interference. We need to learn from their success.

It has been over 20 years since we last attempted to create an Australian space industry. We don't want to be back here in another 20 years after repeating the failures of the past.

Bill O'Chee is a former National Party senator for Queensland. He sat in the Senate between 1990 and 1999.