News

Budget 2018: A tech round-up

The federal government has dished out funding for supercomputers, drones, FinTech and online safety awareness campaigns as part of its federal budget. Delivered by Treasurer Scott Morrison in Canberra...

$260m for better industrial GPS

The federal government will dish out $260 million to satellite infrastructure and more accurate global positioning system (GPS) technologies in Australia in an effort to “create jobs and support...

Just $26m for new space agency

The federal government will provide just $26 million over four years to establish Australia’s first national space agency, despite high-profile industry leaders saying it would need at least double...

DTA gets $90m digital ID boost

The Digital Transformation Agency will take charge of a $92 million budget allocation in the 2018/19 financial year to accelerate the implementation of its GovPass digital identity program. The...

ScoMo greenlights national missions

The federal government is to go ahead with two $500 million, ‘groundbreaking’ national missions that were recommended by Innovation and Science Australia in its 2030 strategy. As revealed in...

VC’s want less talk, more strategy

The federal government may have promised an investment of more than $2.4 billion into Australia’s public science and technology infrastructure, but venture capitalists are concerned that there is no...

DTA under fire over CEO Slater

The acting head of the Commonwealth’s Digital Transformation Agency has been forced to defend CEO Gavin Slater’s leave of absence before a Senate committee, claiming it has had no...

Cicada’s tempting tech template

Policy-makers trying to light a fuse under deep tech commercialisation in this country could do worse than take a stroll through Cicada Innovations in Sydney and talk to its...

Matt Barrie urges radical rethink

Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie’s views on the precarious state of Australia’s economy are well known, and he is now urging Treasurer Scott Morrison to use the Budget to “radically...

Open banking on budget wish-list

The Coalition government had been a strong supporter of the local FinTech and RegTech sectors, and naturally the sectors’ two industry associations are hopeful the Scott Morrison’s third budget...

Covata streamlines data management

Where is our data and how is it managed? That’s the fundamental cyber question Australian boards and senior managers need to ask as the regulatory environment around data tightens...

Space industry on a promise

The federal government is expected to provide $50 million to the national space agency in this week’s budget, but one of the country’s most vocal and active space industry...

Budget wish-list: R&D tax certainty

Reform of how Australia’s R&D tax incentive scheme is administered for startups sits at the top of the Budget wish-list for two peak tech industry groups. The Australian Information...

Saul Singer on the STEM obsession

Industry policy-makers had become “too obsessed” with the importance of STEM skills to the jobs of the future and overlooked humanities at their peril, says Saul Singer, the co-author...