In preparation for its fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) rollout, the Federal Labor government is resuming its campaign to change legislation to allow it to access the AU$2 billion regional and rural Communications Fund, which the government claims is needed to bankroll part of the network's construction.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard revealed this week that the onus for funding federal Labor's digital education revolution will fall more heavily on the states than first expected, prompting raised eyebrows from some and the ire of the Opposition.
The Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) announced this week that it will conduct a review of Australia's national innovation system with the aim of cutting the red tape for inventive tech SMEs.
The Federal Labor government's digital education revolution received its final rubber stamp at yesterday's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, but one industry observer has advised education administrators to take their money and put it elsewhere.
Minister for Innovation, Senator Kim Carr, returned from Germany last week hoping to increase Australia's involvement in a 9 billion technology research initiative, which would lead to increased recognition for Australian ICT, according to industry sources.
As the knee-jerk defensive responses to Rudd's "adios" subside and Australia moves on, has Rudd made Australia that little less appealing to the overseas investors he desperately needs to fund his NBN?
Say what you will about Senator Stephen Conroy, but he is clearly not a man afraid of confrontation. Well, he'd better not be, because by killing off the OPEL WiMax project he has just set himself up for a battle with Telstra of Biblical proportions or a big meal of crow washed down with a $4.7 billion gift to SingTel Optus.
As expected, Senator Stephen Conroy -- who made a career out of picking holes in the actions of his predecessor Helen Coonan -- was named to Kevin Rudd's front bench, bearing the interesting new title of Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (BCDE).
Much has been made of Telstra's decision to finally stop holding Australia to ransom, and to actually turn on the ADSL2+ equipment it has installed in what is apparently over 900 of its exchanges around the country.
What a difference a decade makes.
What does the recent election result mean to those of us in the IT industry, and Australian employees in general?
An analysis by representatives of Australia's two largest IT industry groups shows that neither political party in the federal election has come up with a comprehensive policy around technology.
Remember the Labor Partys "Knowledge Nation" IT manifesto unveiled in the last federal election? It died a natural death. Will the party's communications and information policies for the October federal election suffer the same fate?
Many would love to see the Pirate Party and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy face off in the Australian Senate, but the unorthodox political party doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the necessary votes.
The Australian Taxation's Change Program (which is best suited perhaps for simple formulaic tax collections, not complex audit, analysis and interpretation work) may collapse under its own dead weight.
Do you Google Wave?
If you want attention online, then mention that you have a couple of Google Wave invites to giveaway and watch… Watch it now
Thunderbird 3 takes flight
Thunderbird 3 is finally here, after a gestation period measured in
years. The latest version of Mozilla's fr… Watch it now
Google Chrome beta for Mac
It's not fully baked yet, but Google Chrome for Mac reaches a major milestone with the release of an official … Watch it now
How do you build a smarter planet?
Having problems with complex data center? Simplify your data center now.
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