Joseph Brookes

American tech services giant Leidos has claimed the key component in the federal Health department’s prized outsourcing deal with a $91 million three year contract, ending Datacom’s 12-year nearly $1 billion run. The outsourcing arrangement had only been held this century by Datacom or IBM, and covers one of Canberra’s largest and most complex tech environments. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing carved out the enterprise computing services component this year as part of a its new ICT Sourcing Strategy and government wide rules that encourage competition for smaller, shorter term deals.

A review of scandal-linked technology procurement at the National Disability Insurance Agency has dragged on for three years and remains ongoing eight months after the minister was assured it was likely to end. Sparked by concerns about the engagement of Salesforce to deliver software for the NDIS, the review includes the conduct of NDIA staff accepting gifts from the software giant as the deals were being signed. The NDIA’s investigation was launched in 2023 after allegations that “specifically handpicked appointees” of the Morrison government had “pushed” for Salesforce software to be used for the NDIS despite the existence of cheaper alternatives.

The Employment department will resume cancelling and suspending welfare recipients’ support payments from October, ending a two year freeze triggered by its error riddled compliance and technology systems. The department’s secretary revealed the intention to resume cancellations in cases where welfare recipients have not ‘reconnected’ with employment service providers after not completing mandatory tasks, and will allow providers to suspend the payments when they do not accept job offers. These penalties will resume from late October, while others triggered by similar suspected breaches will resume from early 2027.

Legislated standards for artificial intelligence could force tech giants to provide local companies with access to compute power, Innovation minister Tim Ayres confirmed Thursday, opening the door to a world first scheme in Australia. Set to be introduced to parliament next year, the AI standards will flip non-binding government ‘expectations’ into an enforceable regulatory framework for data centres, hyperscalers like Microsoft and AWS, and AI infrastructure specialist ‘neoclouds’.

Startups developing ultrasonic technology to de-stress fish, de-carbonise boating and accelerate housing construction are among 22 firms to share in $1 million from the NSW MVP Ventures program announced Tuesday. One of the recipients, Newcastle based Aquacultr Group, is using its grant to commercialise ultrasonic technology that its founder Matt Goddard says can limit the manifestations of stress in fish farms. “The primary focus of the company is to develop a technology using ultrasonic sound that reduces fish stress,” Mr Goddard told InnovationAus.com.

The Minns government will spend $6.5 billion procuring and supporting thousands of electric buses in the coming decade, as part of a domestic manufacturing package unveiled Tuesday in the NSW budget.An additional $225 million will also be made available in co-investment grants for domestic manufacturers of low-carbon products and operations, while the state will also explore a new hub for the advanced manufacturing of pre-fab housing.The initiatives are part of significant new investments in Labor’s last budget before the state election next March, which was mostly constrained on spending outside essential services and cost of living relief.

The University of Sydney on Monday invited potential partners to explore a new venture fund to commercialise more of its deep tech and BioTech breakthroughs as spinout companies, forecasting its ventures will need more than $200 million in coming years. A co-investment platform, hybrid, or other approach will also be considered, but the sandstone university has flagged it wants venture capital firms with a track record of raising and managing institutional capital -- and a pick to be made by the end of 2026. The University of Sydney already has its own $25 million pre-seed fund, but it is being outpaced by a pipeline of investible research, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Mike Ryan said.

New analysis shows the the gap between Australian and US labour productivity can be largely accounted for by a stark difference in intellectual property investment in just two sectors, and domestic hurdles in diffusing innovation. While Australia’s other market sectors have mostly matched the US in IP investment rates, the US commands a four fold lead in manufacturing and information sectors by doubling down on areas like R&D and software. “Together, these [manufacturing and information] sectors account for around 30 per cent of US market-sector output but explain nearly all of the cross-country divergence in labour productivity growth since 2000,” an e61 policy paper by Gianni La Cava says.

Australian researchers will be able to apply for grants from the world’s largest innovation funding program from early next year, the government has signalled, after official negotiations on Horizon Europe wrapped up on Tuesday. Industry and Science minister Tim Ayres said the talks were a major milestone in Australia’s attempt to follow around 20 other...

Around 310,000 people had support payments unlawfully cancelled under the government’s welfare compliance system after automation errors present for years prevented them from being able to reconnect, according to advocates. In the latest turn in the integrity scandal around Australia’s automated welfare compliance scheme, the Senate on Wednesday heard evidence that these warnings are largely correct and could result in almost 100,000 people needing to be compensated. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations’ (DEWR) has previously only confirmed around 10,000 people needed to be compensated for invalid government decisions to cancel support payments over incomplete "mutual obligations" and “unemployment failures”.