Category: InnovationAus

Competition watchdog boss Rod Sims has knocked back Facebook and Google’s suggested “fixes” for the media bargaining code and accused the tech giants of “brinkmanship” in threatening to withdraw services from Australia in retaliation. Appearing at a public hearing held by the Senate committee investigating the legislation introducing a

Google has joined Facebook in threatening to withdraw its services from Australia if legislation introducing a media bargaining code is passed by Parliament. In a sometimes fiery Senate inquiry public hearing, the local bosses of Google and Facebook faced senators to push back heavily against the proposed code, which

The South Australian government has doubled down on its push into the space sector, partnering with industry to send a locally designed and manufactured satellite into orbit. Announced by Premier Steven Marshall, the so-called SASAT1 Space Services Mission marks the first time that a state government has embarked on

Industry, Science and Technology Minister Karen Andrews has welcomed president-elect Joe Biden’s plan to elevate the role of the chief science advisor into a Cabinet-level position for the first time. Mr Biden appointed the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard’s founding director Eric Lander – a mathematician and geneticist

The sudden rise in remote working due to COVID-19 has driven strong interest in encryption. Business-critical and sensitive data that previously traversed only secure corporate networks is now being carried over the internet to and from the homes of employees. Organisations of all kinds are holding videoconferences and discussing

Not content with his planned $1 billion investment in solar power and pumped hydro storage at Whyalla in South Australia, steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta has flagged an even bigger push to turn the region into a green industrial powerhouse. In an interview with The Australian newspaper the owner of

The research and development tax incentive is still not suitable for tech companies and a new targeted scheme should be established to replace it, according to Atlassian and the Small Business Ombudsman. In separate submissions to the ongoing senate inquiry into the FinTech sector, the tech giant and Ombudsman

Work is yet to begin on the pivotal second stage of the federal government’s myGov redevelopment, with a private contractor yet to be selected for the project. The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) is heading the program, which will develop a new version of myGov, to initially run alongside the

The suspension of US President Donald Trump from a number of social media platforms has kicked off a muddled political storm in Australia, with a parliamentary group set to be launched to push for further regulation of the tech giants. Following the violent storming of the US Capitol last

Five government departments and agencies have signed on to the Digital Transformation Agency’s cloud-transition program, with consulting giant Deloitte paid $600,000 for its brief work on the project. Led by the DTA, the protected utility program aims to help public sector agencies transition tech infrastructure to cloud-based capability, with

Well, that was one crazy year. Full stop. We’ll definitely need to double up on the Ho, Ho, Ho’s this Christmas. As we move into the holiday season and set our collective vibe to ‘chill’, we present to you the annual InnovationAus Summer Reading list. This is my favourite

The federal government was “dismissive” of concerns raised during consultations about the impact of reforms to Australia’s foreign investment laws on local tech companies, with these left unaddressed in the final legislation, according to Q-CTRL founder Professor Michael Biercuk. During the last sitting fortnight of the year, significant reforms