The first drive in a Victorian government trial to see someone who’s taken medicinal cannabis to see if they can drive safely got underway this week. The closed-circuit testing at the METEC Driver Training facility in Bayswater is the start of a $4.9 million, 18-month trial, conducted by Swinburne University of Technology, to analyse how… Read more »
The Victorian government’s controversial $2 billion venture capital fund, Breakthrough Victoria, posted a $3 million loss in its third year of operation. The funding body, which saw several directors depart in 2024, with CEO Grant Dooley also heading to the exit after just three years, copped a $360 million haircut in the Victorian budget earlier… Read more »
Social media companies are being “contemptuous” to the Australian people and have done “nothing” to help protect their users from scams and crimes, according to former government cyber security tsar Alastair MacGibbon. MacGibbon, who after a 15-year career with the Australian Federal Police served as special adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security and… Read more »
Australia’s new digital ID system promises to transform the way we live. All of our key documents, such as driver’s licences and Medicare cards, will be in a single digital wallet, making it easier for us to access a range of services. The federal government is still developing the system, with a pilot expected to… Read more »
The Australian government has introduced its first-ever standalone cyber security act. Along with two other cyber security bills, it’s currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee. Among the act’s many provisions are mandatory “minimum cyber security standards for smart devices”. This marks a crucial step in defending the digital lives of Australians. So what devices… Read more »
As Australia and other countries debate the merits of banning kids under 14 from social media, Meta has announced a significant “reimagining” of teenagers’ experience of Instagram. These new “Teen Accounts” will be set to private by default, have the maximum content and messaging restrictions possible, pause notifications at night, and add new ways for… Read more »
The federal government is stepping up its fight against scams, which last year cost Australians more than A$2.7 billion. On Friday, the federal treasury released a draft scam prevention framework. The government said the plan is: an economy‑wide reform to protect the Australian community from scams. It takes a whole‑of‑ecosystem approach to reduce gaps which… Read more »
Facebook acknowledged in a Senate inquiry yesterday that it is scraping the public photos of Australian users to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models. Facebook’s parent company Meta claims this excludes data from users who have marked their posts as “private”, as well as photos or data from users under the age of 18. Since… Read more »
The Albanese government has announced it will introduce a social media ban for children. The government has not yet nominated a minimum age but is trialling age-assurance mechanisms for those aged 13–16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the legislation will be introduced this year. This follows criticism from a range of experts, who argue it… Read more »
The federal government has committed to a national plan to ban children from social media. Details are still scarce. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has acknowledged that “no government is going to be able to protect every child from every threat, but we have to do all we can”. But banning children from social media isn’t… Read more »
The Albanese government will introduce legislation this term to enforce a minimum age for children to access social media. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will make the formal announcement on Tuesday. This follows a discussion at last Friday’s national cabinet meeting, at which all states and territories, as well as the Commonwealth, committed to tackling what… Read more »
Authorities in Brazil, the country with the world’s fifth largest number of internet users, have banned the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). The ban came into effect over the weekend. It followed a long-running battle between Elon Musk, the owner of X, and Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes who had… Read more »
NSW startups looking to break into the Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malaysian markets have the support of the state government thanks to deals that will launch coworking sites as bases in the three countries. The International Landing Pads program will give nine startups access to workspace, networks and services to scale in SouthEast Asia. In return NSW… Read more »
The Australian quantum sector will now face harsh criminal penalties if it shares information or technology, even accidentally, with individuals from overseas after quantum technology was brought under the export control scheme. The Department of Defence unveiled the first changes to the Defence and Strategic Goods List in three years, with quantum computers officially added.… Read more »
Last week, quantum computers were added to Australia’s Defence and Strategic Goods List of controlled items facing export restrictions. That’s because quantum technologies – which may soon provide huge advances in computing, communication and sensing – are rapidly growing in strategic importance. The AUKUS partnership between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom includes… Read more »
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