Justin Hendry

A radioisotope heater designed to help payloads survive the lunar night and a GPS-free navigation system for rockets are among five projects to share in $3.6 million in federal space funding. Industry and Science minister Ed Husic announced the five successful recipients in the latest round of the federal government’s Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability Improvement Grants program over the weekend. It is the first funding from the program, which forms part of the broader $150 million Moon to Mars initiative, to flow since March 2024 and brings the running total to more than $25 million.

Defence has revised up its spend on a planned military-grade satellite communication system that was cancelled 18 months after Lockheed Martin was selected, putting the new cost at $102 million. The department updated its sunken costs on the project as it continues to investigate the narrows the pool of staff with knowledge of the announcement before it was leaked to the media. Defence cancelled the project last month in favour of a new approach that relies on a mesh of micro satellites for defence communication, with Defence minister Richard Marles arguing that the plan had become outdated before it had even begun.

Equatorial Launch Australia will close its Northern Territory spaceport and relocate to a new site on the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland after continued delays securing a renewed lease agreement. The company announced the decision to immediately cease operations on the Gove Peninsula, where its Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) – the site of Australia’s first commercial space launch – has existed for the last eight years. It ends a year-long struggle to secure approval for an expanded spaceport, which was projected to inject $3.6 billion into the local economy with the arrival 14 additional launchpads.

NSW's newly renamed Advanced Manufacturing Readiness Facility may still be weeks from launch, but that hasn't stopped it completing its first project with a local industrial engineering company. Ahead of the long-awaited opening of its facility in the brand-new city of Bradfield, the state government-backed innovation accelerator hit a milestone on Wednesday, when it delivered the findings of a time-study project with Marley Flow Control. The project with the Emu Plains headquartered company, one of the country’s leading cooling tower manufacturers, identified cost savings of up to 20 per cent in manufacturing processes that have remained largely unchanged over the last decade.

Australia has become the first country to ban social media for children under the age of 16, with the bill passing in the last hour of Parliament from 2024 despite opposition from the crossbench and some Coalition senators. The controversial Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill passed into law by 34 votes to 19 at a late night sitting of the Senate on Thursday, having cleared the House of Representatives by a wide margin on Wednesday. The bill, which was introduced to Parliament for the first time just last week, will require designated social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from holding an account or face fines of up to $50 million.

A “scary” level of legacy tech debt is building in governments across the country as ministers put off costly upgrades to front-line systems trusted by thousands of public servants. That’s according to Western Australian government chief information office Greg Italiano, who said the figure likely “runs into the billions of dollars” in his home state alone. “If we look at the digital engine room of a lot of government systems that drive education, police, health etc we are still dealing with a tremendous amount of tech debt and legacy,” he told the Digital NSW Showcase on Wednesday.

NSW public servants have been given the all clear to look past off-the-shelf technology and innovative new solutions in new guidance that makes it easier for agencies to try before they buy. The guidance intends to help public servants focus on finding a solution to a defined problem, unlocking more of the state’s more than $2.5 billion yearly tech spend to cutting-edge solutions. The ‘Test and Buy Innovation' approach, which lowers the bar to entry in procurement system otherwise dominated by rigid existing tender pathways, also stands to benefit small and medium-sized enterprises.

Tech giants will face fines of up to $50 million for breaches of Australia's online safety laws under new legislation introduced to give rise to a world-first social media ban for under 16-s.Communications minister Michelle Rowland introduced the controversial Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill to Parliament on Thursday morning, having settled on 16 as the minimum age requirement earlier this month. Elon Musk’s X, TikTok, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit are among the social media platforms that will be designated “at a minimum”, Ms Rowland said, requiring them to “take reasonable steps” to prevent access for age-restricted users. 

A $6 million investment in Australia’s largest university-based machine learning research group by the Commonwealth Bank earlier this year paid for itself just three weeks into the partnership. That’s according to Commonwealth Bank chief information officer for technology Brendan Hopper, who has explained the thinking behind the recent $6 million investment in the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML). It represents the “biggest-ever investment from a private sector company in Australia into foundation AI”, and follows several other investments by AIML university and state government backers in recent months. 

A trial of age verification technology will not deliver its findings to the federal government until six months after proposed legislation banning social media for under-16s is introduced to Parliament. The Communications department revealed the expected wait for the results while announcing a consortium of “industry experts” led by Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) as...