News

Former Sherpa takes Comms role

The senior public servant who coordinated the delivery of the Malcolm Turnbull whole of government innovation strategy, Heather Smith, has been appointed as the new secretary of the Department...

Farewell 2015, you were good to us

Anyone working in the information technology and innovation sectors in Australia should be able to look back on 2015 as the year when everything began to change. At least...

Robots and subs: PM strokes Japan

Quite unexpectedly, Malcolm Turnbull made a quick dash to Tokyo last week for a one day visit to see his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe: his first visit to North Asia....

Vic firms as Cyber Centre favourite

The Victorian Government must surely be comfortable front-runners in the competition between states to host the Commonwealth’s newly-announced $30 million Cyber Security Growth Centre. It remains a weird and not...

Adrian Turner on Data61 funding

The $75 million in additional spending for the Data61 unit of the CSIRO, announced by the Prime Minister this month, is not a re-instatement of the original NICTA funding,...

Doors open for strategic Aust tech

The Turnbull Government has taken its first cautious steps toward an overdue reformation of tech procurement practices, with opportunities creaking open for local SME’s and a new model for...

Are we any closer to growth?

When Malcolm Turnbull was releasing his Innovation and Science Agenda your correspondent was attending the annual conference of the Australian Society of Heterodox Economists. One paper in particular seemed...

Enabling Fintech gains cut through

The ever-flourishing Fintech scene is beginning to see a shift away from predominantly disruptive technology companies, to more enabling technology companies – those who act as service providers to...

Who’s on board with Bill Ferris?

The thing about giant policy announcements is that they invariably generate as many questions as they answer. This is especially the case when the policy is delivered by the...

Public data drives economic growth

Providing open access to government data can impact national economies to the tune of 2 per cent of GDP, and providing data access should be viewed not as a...

COAG agrees to new STEM formula

Education ministers have endorsed a national approach to improving both the teaching and take-up of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects at Australian schools. The commitment is more philosophical...

Mr Turnbull and ‘that question’

InnovationAus.com recently posed the question “Does innovation need connectivity?” Leigh Sales on ABC TVs 7:30 program had a crack at asking Prime Minister Turnbull a version of that same...

Policy Snapshot: All new measures

With the much anticipated announcement of the Innovation Statement in Canberra on Monday, it’s clear Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants to drive Australia into unprecedented innovation territory, now popularly...

Now to focus on entrepreneurship

This week it’s all been about ‘innovation’. It is simply not possible to overestimate the importance of the Australian National Innovation and Science Agenda. It’s a big, big step...