News

The Snowy Hydro and cities policy

The Snowy Hydro expansion is an example of how good cities policies aren’t properly realised until decades in the future, Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation Angus Taylor...

Sydney slides on ecosystem ranks

You wouldn’t want to bet your house on the veracity of global startup ecosystem rankings. But if you take them with a grain of salt, they are a yardstick...

Cities policy needs tech standards

The three levels of government in Australia will need to work in tight cooperation on cities policy and investment if the nation is to extract the maximum benefit from...

Singapore gets its Landing Pad

The fifth and final of Australia’s much-ballyhooed international ‘Landing Pads’ is now operational in Singapore. It joins those in San Francisco, Berlin, Shanghai and Tel Aviv. The Landing Pads are...

Musk offer is no way to govern

You can’t fault the billionaire Australian software entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes’ motivation for pressing for a 100MW battery storage facility to be set up in South Australia to help it through...

China and a new cyber arms race

If there were any doubts about the broad direction of the next wave of technological development, China has put them to rest with a national artificial intelligence strategy amid...

Feds’ Cyber CIC is RainbowLand

The Federal Government’s new Critical Infrastructure Centre (CIC) is going through “the puppy dogs and rainbows stage” before the harsh realities of maintaining cyber defence set in, says a...

R&D: Keep calm, carry on claiming

The industry department has been scrambling to produce new eligibility case studies to address the fear and loathing among tech-enabled startups over a perceived tightening of the R&D Tax...

Robo-debt is not a friendly robot

The Department of Human Services is an “agency in crisis” and its highly controversial robo-debt collection system has created a “climate of fear” in Australia, a Senate inquiry has...

Aus battery tech takes on Tesla

The grid scale battery storage project under way in Victoria is likely to raise a bunch of issues around which technologies to use and how best to leverage local...

Cities policy key to digital economy

In the fast evolving digital economy, smarter cities policy will drive the nation’s ability to both innovate and compete in global markets, as well as provide the platform for economic...

Thodey review of PM&C queried

Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy Ed Husic has called for the public release of a little-known review of federal government digital transformation efforts that ultimately led to the radical restructure of...

Sydney’s weird new digital plan

The City of Sydney’s somewhat unorthodox approach to digital transformation was on display again this week when it introduced paperless lodgement for development applications – as long as the...

Bowen recommits on global trade

Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has recommitted Labor’s focus on globalisation and large scale multilateral trade deals in a big set-piece speech on Tuesday. Speaking at the Lowy Institute, Mr...