Victoria's Broke State Government Shoots Taxpayer Money into Outer Space

The State ALP make cuts to cancer research but find money for a speculative space tourism venture

The Victorian Government - with the largest debt of all state and territory governments - has decided to invest millions in space tourism.

It was that, or a ticket in Powerball.

While the State Government demands regional hospitals cut costs or close, it is firing $37m of taxpayer money into outer space.

The massive investment in a US space tourism company will be amazing if it comes off.

Just like the investment in the Commonwealth Games would have been amazing if it had come off.

And just the investment in the East West Link would have been amazing if it had come off.

But let’s not get hung up on past failures. This is space tourism. What could go wrong?

The project looks about as solid as the surface of Jupiter.

Arizona-based World View is selling tickets $75,000 tickets for space flights that will take off from the Great Barrier Reef.

The fact that they don’t yet have approval for that venture is no barrier to Victorian investment.

The Victorian Government says its $37m investment in World View will see the company establish its Indo-Pacific mission control and flight operations in Melbourne.

To infinity and beyond!

The company’s track record doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But then again, neither does the Victorian Government’s so, perhaps it’s a match made in the heavens.

The ABC reported that in 2017, World View teamed up with KFC to launch a burger into the stratosphere.

I know, what you’re thinking. If they can launch a piece of chicken into space, why not me?

Well before you rush out and join the Victorian Government in buying a ticket, you should know that the mission was aborted due to a leak in one of the company's altitude-control balloon systems. 

Fortunately the KFC burger was unharmed. But it could have been a whooper.

The Victorian Government aren’t chicken though. Nor are they put off by reports that a county in Arizona sued after investing $15m in World View only for the company to create a tiny fraction of the jobs it promised.

The last Victorian State budget included cuts of $23m to cancer research. But had a spare $37m to throw at a speculative space tourism jaunt.

Space cadets, the ALP.

All of them.