Margaret Paton

Simulated weapons training for new army recruits, virtual tours of planned community developments, and training the next generation of bio-hazard diagnosticians and controllers – these are just a few of the ways governments are harnessing the massive potential of immersive...

While Covid-19 vaccine passports are re-opening the world to Australians, a quite different type of passport – to record school-based and extracurricular learning – could open doors to the future of work. Questions are circulating around the NSW Government’s pilot...

A cybersecurity expert has criticised Australian governments for churning out “tokenistic” cyber strategies without much-needed detail, education or funding to tackle hackers and respond to breaches. These cyber strategies ignore not-for-profit businesses and particularly those providing health services – a...

The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn thinks so. He sees tax in a “natural ecosystem”, where the tax office is focused not only on audits and timely prompts to enforce compliance, but also on compassion. An ATO...

Within the next 10 to 15 years, every government-funded infrastructure project should move to adopt cross-functional digital twins. This is one of several key recommendations from Infrastructure Australia’s (IA’s) ambitious five-yearly report. The 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan, released earlier this...

The Australian Government’s Digital Identity Bill, which paves the way for a ‘whole-of-economy’ digital identity system, is expected to be tabled in Federal Parliament later this year. After two rounds of public consultation, experts have, however, raised concerns around governance,...

While Australia’s public sector is facing a growing dearth of tech talent, a cohort of digital apprentices, cadets, and graduates from APS-led training programs could not only help refill this talent pool but also emerge as the next generation of...

A growing cohort of disruptive start-ups has emerged in Australia’s blockchain space. But, as new and exciting use cases emerge within the public sector, how are governments embracing this technology for their own operations? Probably best known as the underlying...

Governments across Australia have set forth a groundswell of innovation in ‘NewSpace’ (the private aerospace industry), creating dedicated space hubs that have not only benefitted global aerospace giants but also local start-ups and innovative SMEs. Yet, challenges remain in getting...

Governments’ deft handling of the pandemic response – while no doubt inconsistently managed from state to state – has seen a significant boost in trust for public institutions. Professional services group Deloitte notes that governments today are the most trusted...

Government agencies are seldom considered catalysts for digital transformation in other sectors. However, the disability service sector appears to have actively embraced the Federal Government’s open-source approach to innovation. Early last year, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), overseer of...