Joseph Brookes

Science minister Tim Ayres and the CSIRO will be asked to explain hundreds of redundancies at the science agency when Parliament returns next week, as the research sector rallies against decision. Opposition, Greens and independent parliamentarians criticised the Albanese government on Tuesday for presiding over another 300-to-350 research redundancies at the CSIRO, after already eliminating more than 800 roles. The cuts are worse than any under Tony Abbott, leaving the agency with around 1100 fewer staff than under that Coalition government, according to the CSIRO union.

A firsthand account of how Atlassian software was distressing a blind user gave its founders a new understanding of the importance of accessible design and triggered top down changes at the software giant. Atlassian’s then accessibility lead Aubrey Blanche had founders Mike Cannon Brookes and Scott Farquhar watch an interview with the user on the problems with their Jira software. It was a “shame and discomfort” tactic to drive change, Ms Blanche said, but also helped frame accessibility as a user experience opportunity rather than product accessibility.

A $25 million government-funded cyber training program delivered by a Labor-linked consultancy is attempting to reframe its controversial grant at the halfway mark after delivering only a quarter of the agreed graduates. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) was handed the funding without tender by the Albanese government in 2023 to engage small businesses and train 50,000 of their staff as “cyber wardens”. Its program is being delivered by Labor aligned consultancy 89 Degrees East and as at July this year had trained around 13,000 individual small business employees.

The biggest tech suppliers to Australian governments are paying almost no tax relative to their soaring local incomes, transparency data has again shown, amid growing calls for revenue or services tax on Big Tech and smarter procurement policies. Data released by the Australian Taxation Office on Thursday for the 2024 financial year shows the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Accenture booking multi-billion dollar incomes in Australia. But the firms’ taxable income is far lower and the actual tax paid is just a sliver of the local earnings, often just one or two per cent of the revenue.

A Senate inquiry into aged care services has found the government technology needed to usher in generational reforms next month isn’t ready and the delay is holding up the sector’s own preparations. The inquiry’s final report, tabled Wednesday, calls on the government to finalise its aged care technology environment as “a matter of urgency” ahead of the new Aged Care Act coming into force next month. The committee was “alarmed” by evidence from providers that government technology is still is not finalised even after the original July deadline was pushed back to November and a $1.2 billion budget.

Australia’s $25 billion medical research fund could be dispersing more than twice what it is currently -- an extra $750 million annually -- and still break even, according to new analysis that has triggered calls to lift the government’s “arbitrary cap” on grants. The new analysis from the Parliamentary Budget Office confirms a huge potential underspend from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) that was set up in 2015 to pay for medical research and innovation. It reached a $20 billion target in 2020 that was intended to allow it to distribute $1 billion annually for medical research.

The head of the European Union says Australia’s attempt to keep children off social media is inspiring her and member states, as Europe ramps up tech trials and public support for a similar ban. The support at a United Nations event organised by Australian advocates overnight is some of the strongest yet from EU leaders and marks another headwind for social media giants. Australia’s ban begins December 10 with bipartisan and public support, despite concerns from experts and platforms about unintended consequences and the feasibility of the age assurance technologies being rolled out to comply.

Australia’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer has secured investment from the federal government’s industry fund, a former Prime Minister and several super funds to keep developing Wi-Fi microchips for IoT devices in NSW. The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation announced its $35 million investment – its biggest direct investment in a tech firm -- on Tuesday as part of Morse Micro’s Series C funding round. The Corporation joins venture capital funds Blackbird and Main Sequence, and former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the $88 million round.

A three year probe into Kmart’s use of facial recognition across dozens of stores has found the retailer breached privacy law when it captured and analysed customers’ faces without consent or notification. Kmart deployed the facial recognition technology at 28 stores between 2020 and 2022 in an attempt to identify people committing refund fraud. But it did not notify shoppers or seek their consent despite collecting biometric information, which is considered sensitive personal information under Australian privacy law.

Australia has begun explanatory talks with the European Commission about joining the $170 billion Horizon Europe initiative, the world’s largest funding program for research and innovation. Science minister Tim Ayres’ decision to start the talks comes after the Albanese government last year rejected growing calls from the sector to follow nations like Canada and New Zealand in signing up. Joining would require the federal government to contribute to the mammoth fund but offer new access for Australian innovators to research grants, collaborative projects and industry partnerships.