LABOR is set to rewrite space policy and make Canberra the headquarters of the National Space Agency if it forms government, industry spokesman Kim Carr said.

The move is at odds with the Turnbull Government’s plan to let agency head Dr Megan Clark tour the nation, assess the states’ merits, then decide on the location or locations.

Senator Carr said under Labor’s space policy the agency - which Adelaide astronaut Andy Thomas said on Thursday must be in South Australia - would be in Canberra with nodes in all the states and territories.

“It doesn’t mean we’ll have launch facility in Fyshwick but we’ll make sure the states maintain their efforts. This is a genuinely nation-building enterprise,” Mr Carr said.

“The current bidding war is profoundly counter-productive and in fact distracts from the task ahead of us.”

At the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Conference this week most experts have said the Agency should be industry-led but Senator Carr said it should be Government-driven.

Too much science would allow anti-science extremists - from leftie environmentalists to right-wing climate change deniers - to attack it, he said.

Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash said the space industry now had a coordinating body and had “totally transformed” since the 1950s.

“We will listen to the experts regarding the most strategic location for the space agency,” she said.

“There is a clear choice between the Coalition and the Labor Party. The Turnbull Government is establishing an Australian space industry, which will set up valuable opportunities for small and large businesses, grow our economy and create thousands of jobs for the 21st century, whereas Labor want to set up another giant bureaucracy.”

Meanwhile Dr Clark said “all options are open” on where the agency is based and that she will engage with the states and territories on an imminent national tour.

She also called on Australia’s kids - particularly girls - to become “little agents of change” in the new high-tech world.

“My only advice is just start to engage with your families, with schools, with communities, they themselves can be little agents of change and (bring) some of these developments into their communities” she said.

“We really want to encourage that next generation.”