News

Southern Launch gets first Aussie launch licence

The first Australian launch facility licence has been granted to Southern Launch, allowing the Adelaide based space tech to launch suborbital satellites from its Koonibba Test Range in regional...

Sovereign tech capability now critical: TechOne

Australia must use government purchasing power to build the sovereign capability of its local technology industry to ensure the nation’s critical systems are resilient against the next Black Swan...

EY’s Health dept revenue triples during COVID

The value of Ernst & Young’s contracts with the federal Health department tripled during the pandemic, with fellow Big Four consultancy PwC doubling its work for the department in...

John Brumby on Victoria’s $2b innovation fund

Victoria’s $2 billion commercialisation fund will lead to a “quantum shift” for the state, according to former Premier John Brumby, who will chair the new fund. The Breakthrough Victoria...

Accenture wins big via ATO during pandemic year

Accenture landed a series of prominent contracts with the Australian Taxation Office during 2020, with the Irish-headquartered consulting giant increasing its government work significantly last year. The federal government’s...

Govt drops ball on data breach penalty reform

Two years after promising “tough” new penalties for data breaches, the government is still yet to actually introduce the reforms, despite acknowledging at the time that the current scheme...

NSW regulators to move to single digital platform

NSW regulators will need to join the state government’s ‘eRegulation’ platform to retain their authority under a plan to digitally amalgamate regulators similarly to the state’s planning departments. Eventually...

Plans approved for Western Sydney Startup Hub

The NSW Government’s proposed Western Sydney Startup Hub has been given planning approval, paving the way for heritage buildings in North Parramatta to be “sensitively restored” for entrepreneurs. Some...

Crowdsource talent to cut consultancy ‘fat’

Australian governments could tap into millions of highly qualified experts and slash consultancy “fat” by opening up their tender process to crowd sourcing, Freelancer chief executive Matt Barrie says....

Quantum Brilliance gets a Pawsey step-up

Quantum Brilliance, the Australian-German deep tech startup spun-out of the Australian National University, will deliver a world first diamond quantum accelerator to the Pawsey supercomputing research facility in Perth....

AMA raises alarm over data sharing plan

The Australian Medical Association has sounded the alarm over the federal government’s flagship new data-sharing scheme, warning there are no minimum privacy protections and that private health information could...

If you want a patent, it helps to be human

Earlier this year IP Australia rejected a patent application from Dabus. The problem: Dabus is not human, it is artificial artificial intelligence software that had come up with something...

Dealing with govt as a nation of SMEs

Greg Whiteley is a small manufacturing business owner and has had many a reason to navigate the interface with the Commonwealth Public service. Here he looks at the compliance...

On fairness, algorithms and the law

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” chanted the witches in Macbeth, meaning that appearances can be deceptive: things can differ from how they appear. And our idea of...