Joseph Brookes

Australian scientists and international research partners have discovered “major vulnerabilities” in technology used to detect deepfakes, finding none of the market leading detectors can reliably identify real-world use. The detectors were shown to have failed to keep up with rapidly advancing deep fake technologies, which are now more convincing, cheaper and easier to deploy than ever before. The warning comes ahead of an Australian federal election that will allow deepfakes and voice clones, after the government prioritised donation caps and spending limits but left truth in political advertising work off its current agenda.

The equivalent of 754 Services Australia staff have completed procurement and contract management training in the wake of a scandal involving the agency that was referred to the corruption watchdog. CEO David Hazlehurst detailed the training and a crunch on the use of limited tenders in his assurances to Parliament’s audit committee last week. The committee asked for updates last year after its 14-month inquiry into procurement at Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency, which handed serious concerns to the National Ant-Corruption Commission.

Experts are backing the NSW government’s shift to mission-led industry policy and greater program co-ordination, but after a multi-year wait, they say details and funding must flow quickly to drive the ambitious change. The new policy was launched Wednesday to outline the Minns government’s strategic vision for a more productive and resilient economy. It is built around 3 interrelated missions with hard targets to address the challenges of housing, net zero & energy transition and manufacturing.

The federal government has for the first time defined an ‘Australian business’ for procurement purposes as part of a multi-year project to extract more benefits from its $80 billion annual spend. Around 20 per cent of the spend goes to the technology sector, and Australian suppliers and advocates on Wednesday welcomed the new definition and guidance as a key step in building up domestic capabilities. The definition -- which requires minimum ownership, tax residency and principal place of business -- arrives with fresh guidance for government agencies on the retained economic benefit of going local.

The federal government’s main technology suppliers have significant gender pay gaps, with some well above the industry averages and going backwards, newly released transparency data shows. Tuesday's data reveals Microsoft partner Data#3 and favoured tech policy contributor the Boston Consulting Group have median gender pay gaps of 32 per cent and 34 per cent respectively, while Oracle and Infosys sit well above their industry average. Overall, the tech industry is closing its gender pay gap faster than the national rate, but it remains one of the biggest gaps at almost double the economy wide mark.

Australia’s largest startup community has a new leader, with Majella Campbell promoted to chief executive of Fishburners this week ahead of its move out of the CBD.Ms Campbell takes the reins from Martin Karafilis who steps down on Friday after more than two years as CEO. “Fishburners has always been about pushing boundaries and supporting founders to succeed,” he said. “With the startup ecosystem evolving rapidly, now is the right time for a leadership transition.”

The Employment department on Wednesday apologised for its bug riddled and "dead end" technology systems that have for years been incorrectly penalising hundreds of jobseekers, including 10 that died after incurring incorrect penalties. But Department secretary Natalie James, who says she is no longer satisfied some of her computer programs are acting lawfully, will not suspend the wider compliance framework. “I’ve got real concerns and I’m asking the department to undertake interrogation in a range of different ways. And so, I need to have sufficient information to make a decision... I can’t not administer the [Social Security] Act. I can’t not make decisions that the Act requires me to make.”

The Health department has signed up for another year of Salesforce to help manage its COVID-19 vaccine data, after tightening assurance controls to verify its technology suppliers' data security and privacy. The latest renewal pushes the US software giant’s pandemic software deals with the federal government to nearly $7 million. The wider COVID-19 vaccine technology costs, also including AWS hosting, Accenture reporting and integration with the national immunisation register, has now reached at least $45 million.

Venture capitalist Rod Bristow is the new head of Breakthrough Victoria, joining the company responsible for the state government’s $2 billion innovation fund on Monday with a pledge to steer it into a capital recycling stage. He arrives as CEO from Sydney and Singapore-based VC firm Investible and says the state investment lever is critical to crowding in private capital and ultimately helping transform the Victorian economy. “We're not the single solution to future economic, social and environmental benefit for Victoria, but we're certainly part of it,” he said.

Australia’s $2 billion Top Secret cloud is sorely needed by defence and intelligence agencies that have fallen years behind the private sector, allies and some adversaries. But the government’s decision to go with a single market leading US vendor over local providers while extolling sovereignty has raised difficult questions. As the dust settles on last year's landmark deal with Amazon Web Services, InnovationAus.com can reveal local suppliers will get a chance to participate in the project scheduled to launch in 2027.But experts are already doubting whether the ambitious timeline can be met and if there is even enough security cleared personnel to build and operate a Top Secret cloud, while some have challenged the claims of a “fully sovereign” system.