News

Xi tightens grip in China tech

The quinquennial Chinese Communist Party Congress, its 19th since winning the country’s civil war in 1949 begins this Wednesday. It will be the coronation of its leader for the...

Welcome to The Establishment

When we think about innovation there is a temptation to focus on the bright, the shiny, and the new. Startups fascinate us because they go boldly where no-one has...

Skills policy is a top constraint

When the ASX-listed accounting giant MYOB set out its formal business plan for 2017, chief executive Tim Reed says the company identified access to skills as the single biggest...

BCA ramps tax change effort

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) has wasted no time putting corporate tax cuts back on the minds of politicians as they return to parliament this week, claiming that...

Labor: $1b fund for manufacturers

Labor will create a $1 billion fund to help innovative manufacturing firms transition into high value production and “build for the future” if it wins the next federal election....

Cyber threats from weird places

When Michael Daniel entered the White House during Obama’s presidency as cybersecurity coordinator, he never thought he’d have to brief the President about how a nation state was attacking...

ASD disclosure is a good thing

The Australian Signals Directorate should be applauded for sharing publicly the details of a serious data breach at an Australian defence contractor at a conference for cyber security professionals...

Kimmorley on energy opportunity

Of all the things that are happening in the energy sector in Australia right now, the least talked about but most interesting relates to entrepreneurial innovation in energy-related products...

Westacott seeks lifetime learning

The Business Council of Australia wants the local workforce to be skilled up and kept that way through more vocational education and an ambitious lifelong training plan, less we’ll...

Audit Office slaps USO contracts

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has found serious flaws with the Department of Communications’ contract management of selected telephone universal service obligations (USO). In a report released in...

An indigenous focus on startups

The Queensland government believes it’s on the right the track to helping reduce the disadvantage gap among Indigenous Australians. But Kamilaroi man Dean Foley – the founder of Australia’s...

No charges laid for cyber attacks

Australia’s cyber spooks say they responded to more than 600 “serious incidents” in the last year, and yet no charges and no prosecutions have been made as a result...

New protections for critical assets

It started with the telecommunications sector, now the Australian government is looking to better ‘safeguard’ other parts of Australia’s critical infrastructure – electricity, water and ports – from potential...

Sweating on the ISA 2030 plan

Innovation and Science Australia chairman Bill Ferris’ aim to hand his 2030 Strategic Plan for the nation’s industry development policies to government this week has been thwarted by circumstance....