The Australian government is hoping the private sector’s appetite for investment in climate change tech will make it want to partner with the Commonwealth in a $1 billion commercialisation fund to develop new low emissions technologies. The government is chipping in $500 million for the fund, to be run by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation… Read more »
The Morrison government will announced its long-awaited electric vehicle strategy, coinciding with COP26 climate change talks underway in Glasgow. The new policy contains some welcome new funding, but is largely notable for what it omits. In a welcome move, the government has allocated an additional A$250 million for electric vehicles, primarily aimed at charging infrastructure.… Read more »
After demonising Labor’s policy on electric cars before the 2019 election, the federal government has put electric vehicles at the centre of a new “Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy” to be released by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday. The policy puts another A$178 million into the government’s future fuels fund, bringing it to $250… Read more »
The federal government has been asking the public for feedback on proposed legislation to create a “trusted digital identity” system. The aim is for Australians to use it to prove their identity when accessing public services. I first found out about the draft Trusted Digital Identity Bill not through my research at the intersection of… Read more »
The NSW government has approved tech giant Atlassian’s plan for a 40-storey timber skyscraper next to Sydney’s Central Railway The 180-metre tower will be the tallest commercial hybrid timber building in the world with construction to get underway next year. The tower concept is by New York-based architects SHoP, with Australian practice BVN as the… Read more »
The federal government will introduce a new mandatory ransomware reporting scheme as it looks to crackdown on cybercriminals targeting Australians. Sparse details about the scheme were announced alongside the Department of Home Affairs’ Ransomware Action Plan, released on Wednesday, but the government said it will likely affect businesses with an annual turnover greater than $10… Read more »
Melissa Price is the new Minister for Science and Technology after a cabinet reshuffle on Friday afternoon, making her the seventh minister to take on the science portfolio in as many years. Price, the member for Durack in WA, will add science and technology to her workload as Minister for Defence Industry. Announcing the changes… Read more »
Australia leads the world on several technology fronts, but the Morrison government needs to accelerate industry digitisation or the country will lose its competitive advantage, the IT sector’s peak body, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has warned. The organisation, which is backed by computer giants Dell and IBM, as well as Telstra, has produced… Read more »
Earth has warmed 1.09℃ since pre-industrial times and many changes such as sea-level rise and glacier melt are now virtually irreversible, according to the most sobering report yet by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report also found escape from human-caused climate change is no longer possible. Climate change is now affecting every… Read more »
Over the past few weeks, the Chinese government’s crackdown on big tech companies has intensified. The giants have all felt the brunt of heightened regulatory scrutiny. At the end of last year, Ant Group (which owns the payment platform AliPay) failed to go public on the stock market. Chinese regulators cited a lack of compliance… Read more »
From condo salesman to reality TV host to leader of the free world, Donald Trump has occupied several lifetimes’ worth of identities over a remarkable career of reinventions. Even so, the billionaire mogul’s latest metamorphosis – into a consumer-rights plaintiff seeking to regulate big business – is a peculiar one. With a volley of lawsuits… Read more »
A report from the US task force dedicated to investigating UFOs — or, in the official jargon, UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) — has neither confirmed nor rejected the idea such sightings could indicate alien visits to Earth. Last Friday June 25, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released its eagerly awaited unclassified… Read more »
On budget night federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced Australia is getting its own “patent box”. What is a patent box? Despite its odd name, it is a relatively straightforward concept. It means lowering the tax rate on all income derived from patents registered in a nation. About half the members of the European Union, Britain… Read more »
The federal budget for 2021-22 promises A$1.2 billion over the next six years to support the Digital Economy Strategy, a plan to make Australia “a leading digital economy and society by 2030”. The Digital Economy Strategy proclaims We are well placed to be a leading digital economy and have strong foundations, but many countries are… Read more »
Nearly all the good news in this week’s budget was announced ahead of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg detailing the government’s plans for the year ahead. Nonetheless, we asked many in the startup and tech sector what they thought of the 2021 budget. Here are their reactions: Rebecca Schot-Guppy CEO, FinTech Australia There weren’t too many… Read more »
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