Government News

June saw a number of high-profile appointments across the public sector, with noteworthy additions to the DTA, Victoria’s Government Services ministry, and the CSIRO.   The Federal Government has appointed Kirstjen Nielsen to advise the Government on its cybersecurity strategy, set to be released this...

Social media giant Twitter has conceded users on its network have the potential to significantly disrupt the operations of government and industry, as malicious, state-sponsored actors and misinformation campaigns proliferate on the platform.   The likelihood and risk of future...

Major outage strikes NSW hospitals e-records system and ACSC releases emergency security guidelines in the wake of suspected state-sponsored cyberattack on Australia. Tracking the week that was in tech and digital innovation across Australia and New Zealand’s government sector.   In...

Victoria’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has launched a new drone-equipped aerial surveillance program to spot waste disposal licence breaches, announcing it will conduct impromptu spot checks to gather evidence on offending landfill operators.   The authority’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)...

The ACT Government’s Community Services Directorate (CSD), which assumes a broad remit of client services for the Territory’s human services functions, lacks adequate protections for data used across its front-line services, warns ACT Auditor-General Michael Harris. The concerns were highlighted...

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has warned state agencies to tackle procurement fraud against a backdrop of overcharging, poorly defined supplier relationships, and unmonitored contracts. An investigation by ICAC, which culminated in the Commission’s recently released Supplier Due Diligence:...

New Zealand’s Ministry of Education will invest $28 million to upgrade primary and secondary schools to Wi-Fi 6 capability, deploying up to 38,000 new Wi-Fi access points and 12,000 multi-gigabit switches.   The project is being rolled out under the...

Queensland-based irrigators have been given exclusive access to sensor and analytics data for water management following a partnership announced by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Queensland-based agtech company Goanna Ag.   The partnership will provide irrigators access...

Social Services Minister calls for IT funding model reform, Reserve Bank to develop ‘data bunker’, and the national broadcaster ABC seeks wireless upgrade. Tracking the week that was in tech and digital innovation across Australia and New Zealand’s government sector. Australia...

The Australian Government has moved to strengthen the agriculture sector’s biosecurity provisions, assessing a raft of new technology propositions designed to help prevent the spread of biological pests and diseases. The projects, funded under the Government’s $25.2 million Biosecurity Innovation...

A newly released cybersecurity review of the Federal Government’s largest agencies reveals that only one has so far applied the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) ‘Essential Eight’ criteria to their financial management and HR systems. The security gaps were highlighted in...

The Department of Home Affairs has gone live with its $44 million fingerprint and facial recognition system, with the initial rollout already commenced across Australia’s airports.  The Enterprise Biometric Identification Services (EBIS) project, being deployed within immigration gates across Australia’s...

The Defence Science Institute (DSI) is seeking nationwide expertise to supercharge artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and analytics capability across the public sector and industry, presenting a set of “challenges” for experts to tackle.   Expertise is being sought from...

The Federal Government’s Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications has taken its regional online portal idea to market, seeking outside expertise to design, develop, and manage a new tech information Hub for regional communities. The all-encompassing Digital Technology...

The NSW Police Force lacked strategic direction in managing its six-year, $100 million ICT upgrade, with the program receiving mixed marks in a performance review by the NSW Audit Office. In a just-released audit report, the Office revealed that, in hindsight,...