News

PM appoints new Chief Scientist

The Prime Minister has clearly got the man he wanted as the nation’s new Chief Scientist with the appointment of Dr Alan Finkel, who can claim not only a...

Fifield: Digital is not negotiable

Digital transformation for both government and business is not negotiable, according to newly-appointed Communications Minister Mitch Fifield. In his opening keynote address to the Telstra Digital Summit in Sydney,...

NSW liberates new transport data

The NSW Department of Transport probably owes the Prime Minister a case of beer for all the free publicity he has been giving about its public transport apps. It...

Vietnam tech sector in full swing

In all the hoo-ha over the opaque (and problematic Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal between 12 countries), a rather sizeable nugget of good news for Australia, and particularly its...

Microsoft lands NSW Govt cloud

Software giant Microsoft has signed a new cloud services agreement with the New South Wales Government expected to be worth in excess of $40 million a year. The deal...

Baird unveils harbour tech hub

NSW Premier Mike Baird has earmarked Sydney’s most coveted harbour-front development site as a technology sector hub, with the aim of attracting Tier One tech industry multinationals, as well...

Graham Farquhar, Australian hero

A biologist from the Australian National University has been awarded the 2015 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, for work on plant biophysics models that will determine which trees grow...

Memories of a lost Aussie company

Yesterday I took a walk down memory lane. Enterprise software company BMC is holding its annual Australian user conference in Sydney, and I was able to catch up with...

FSI response leaves FinTech cold

The government response to David Murray’s Financial System Inquiry was an awfully long time in coming. Its cross-the-board acceptance of the vast majority of its recommendations is welcome (and...

Decision arbiters for innovation

It is apparent the revamped Government is committed to raise the effectiveness of the innovation system, and that the opposition also shares this ambition. The need for this transformation...

Riding startup herd with Wyatt Roy

It didn’t really matter who Wyatt Roy invited to his first Policy Hack event, held in partnership with the Sydney incubator/accelerator Blue Chilli. He was always going to be...

Canberra listening tour continues

“We’re listening” was the message clearly ringing out from Canberra today. Except it was being sung by the Innovation Minister Wyatt Roy, and Minister for Employment and Women Michaelia...

NSW steams ahead on digital policy

The NSW Government will unveil a series of landmark digital initiatives at the end of October, including the launch of its own digital authentication and transaction aggregation platform called...

DTO unveils first exemplar projects

Paul Shetler, the head of the government’s Digital Transformation Office, has unveiled the agency’s first projects. With no fanfare, the details were quietly disclosed on the DTO’s blog. Mr...