News

A tech letter from the Daintree

Sitting in a beautiful three bedroom Airbnb in the middle of a Daintree rainforest is not the best place in the world to ponder Australian innovation policy. You’d much...

Artesian’s new clean tech fund

In early September the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Artesian Capital announced that CEFC was committing $10 million in investment capital to a new ‘Clean Energy Seed Fund’ with...

Springboard opens new boot camp

By any number of metrics, Springboard Australia is among the most successful accelerator program in this country. The fact that it is focused exclusively on the support and promotion...

Time to end the NBN shell game

It is time for NBN Co Chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski to call an end to the shell game that is being played out in an effort to carefully manage...

DGA’s Samuel to target breach law

Graeme Samuel has launched a last ditch bid to head off mandated data breach notification laws and what he describes as “heavy-handed federal regulation”. The former competition tsar and...

Redback Tech finds a big new friend

Chinese-owned utility giant EnergyAustralia has invested $9.3 million in Brisbane based Redback Technologies, a battery energy company. It is the latest step in EnergyAustralia’s move into renewables, and a...

Yellowfin swims on rising tide

Melbourne based Yellowfin has become one of the Australian software industry’s great success stories. Its business intelligence products now have over a million end users in 50 countries. It...

Launceston gets a City Deal

Launceston in northern Tasmania has been announced as the home of the Turnbull government’s second ‘City Deal’. The first, announced before the recent election, was Townsville. Western Sydney has...

Small biz: Disrupt or be disrupted

Down in the small business trenches these days the word is not so much ‘eat or be eaten’ as ‘disrupt or be disrupted’. Buzz phrase niceties aside, the effects...

Blockchain patents – the new black

What’s the big story in software patent applications in 2016? Does it by any chance involve a tamper-proof, virtual decentralised verification ledger? In other words, does it use blockchain?...

Cyber is central to strategic policy

Malcolm Turnbull has urged Australian corporate leaders to appoint cybersecurity expertise to board level positions, and called on business and governments to create a common language for describing cyber...

DTO slows national identity plan

The Digital Transformation Office (DTO) has applied the brakes to its national identity framework plans. In a letter sent to the 70-odd organisations that replied to its Request for...

Ciobo’s hypocrisy in Hong Kong

The Turnbull Government’s lack of a clear China policy came under the spotlight last week when Trade and Investment Minster Steve Ciobo visited Hong Kong in an effort to...

Radio astronomy takes the spotlight

Australia, long a leader in radio astronomy, is maintaining its premier position with the world’s largest and most innovative radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA, to...