Joseph Brookes

The federal government’s $100 billion procurement system will for the first time include guidance on outcomes-based options next year in response to value for money struggles and an opportunity to drive local innovation. Procurement policy steward the Department of Finance is finalising APS-wide guidance on an outcomes-based contracting to try and improve the delivery of 83,000 federal deals struck each year. Rather than linking contract payment to the inputs or activities of the service, an outcomes-based approach gives suppliers more flexibility in meeting the government buyer’s desired outcome.

Gender biases, stereotypes and inequities are limiting women’s participation in the Australian cybersecurity sector, according to new research that recommends changes to the current “24/7 culture”. A report by RMIT cyber and social researchers released on Wednesday found the barriers are making it harder to address gender equity in an Australian sector where less than one in five cybersecurity workers are women. Shifting the balance to make the workforce more diverse and larger amid a cyber skills crunch will need a systems solution, the report said.

The privacy and information watchdog has slashed dozens of staff in response to a 23 per cent budget cut by government and a review by management consultants, sparking fears it will be ill equipped to deal with key policy changes like the social media ban. Senior officials confirmed the cuts on Wednesday and said a new structure at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) will in place from early next month. Changes have been underway since July, when dedicated funding for social media and data breach complaints and enforcement ended, despite rising privacy issues and breaches worsening in scale and complexity.

Queensland’s sovereign wealth fund on Tuesday hopped into a $125 million climate technology venture capital fund, boosting the funding available to local startups while expanding its global climate mandate. The Queensland Investment Corporation contribution is undisclosed but InnovationAus.com understands it is around $10 million. The move bolsters the country’s largest climate tech venture outfit Virescent Ventures, which already has the backing of Australia’s green bank and Westpac, and plans to pump up to $200 million into local startups over 10 years.

Deceptive deepfake videos and voice clones will be banned during elections and referendums under Albanese government truth in political advertising laws introduced on Monday to try stem the flow of misinformation. But the new bans won’t be in force for the next federal election, with only a mandatory disclosure that material was substantially modified by digital technology potentially expected to be in force by then. The government and opposition teamed to vote down an attempt to have the generational electoral reforms examined by a committee, despite the key changes not coming into effect until 2026.

Tech giants like Meta and X face a European-style duty of care to proactively protect Australian users under an Albanese government plan that could be legislated by the end of the year. Communications minister Michelle Rowland on Wednesday night revealed the government will accept the key recommendation from a forthcoming review of Australia’s online safety laws and legislate a ‘Digital Duty of Care’. If passed, the legal requirement long sought by platform critics and safety advocates would shift the onus onto online service providers to keep millions of Australians safe by continuously assessing and mitigating risks.

Australia’s largest bank and a medical centre have signed on to test Canberra’s verifiable credentials project, which is promising to harden the nation against cyber attacks and scams by draining the data honeypot. While still at a proof-of-concept stage, the Services Australia TEx project announced in August could also leave a mark for outgoing government services minister Bill Shorten. It has already coopted all the major banks, telecommunications companies, Google, Apple, seek.com and private identity providers, while briefings are being provided to the Opposition to build bipartisan consensus in a project that would take years to deliver.

Tech services giants Accenture and Deloitte are running the Bureau of Meteorology’s new forecasting technology, leveraging their original deals to build the platforms into $27 million of running costs over the next three years. Bureau of Meteorology officials on Friday told the Senate its main technology suppliers had to be paid more than anticipated on the build when the agency underestimated the complexity of its biggest ever tech uplift and supercomputer build. Contracts amended just before the project, known as Robust, ended also added nearly $27 million in running costs, further complicating what has been a contested final price tag.

The federal government’s overhaul of aged care technology was poorly planned and beset by delays as consultants and foreign software vendors were handed more than half a billion dollars. Internal documents obtained by InnovationAus.com reveal for the first time how much the work to upgrade platforms used to monitor aged care providers has struggled. Since the heavily outsourced work to rebuild the backend systems began in 2022 as part of the government's response to a damning royal commission, key early milestones were missed as a rift grew between business and technology teams under inexperienced leadership.

Jobseekers are being asked to adjust their reporting to employment service providers to avoid a government tech glitch or risk losing their payments, shifting more burden onto vulnerable people. Advocates say the current tech glitch is the latest in a series that have forced jobseekers to jump through even more administrative hoops and that any automated payments suspensions would "repeat the failures of robodebt". The department in charge says it is taking its own steps to ensure payments aren’t wrongly cut off but declined to explain the underlying cause or how many people are impacted.