November 2024
Incoming Westpac boss Anthony Miller takes on bank’s tech rescue
A $3 billion-plus technology project known as Unite will become a key plank of the new Westpac boss’ agenda when he takes the reins next month.
- James Eyers and Lucas Baird
October 2024
Office workers in massive AI trial report saving an hour a day
Public servants who took part in a six-month trial of artificial intelligence say it saved them an average of an hour a day, including the time taken to check its accuracy.
- Edmund Tadros
August 2024
$2.2b lost in federal IT fails after fifth project abandoned
An ambitious attempt to build a common back office system has been abandoned, with little opportunity to reuse the $341 million technology.
- Tom Burton
The hidden jobs revealed by the new skills atlas
A new digital jobs and skills atlas shows where the hidden jobs are and reveals surprising new trends, especially in regional Australia.
- Tom Burton
June 2024
Do view this at home: How the video art market works
Gone are the days when you needed a gallery-sized space to view digital art.
- Rachael Bolton
NAB kills its stablecoin, bankers decamp to form Ubiquity
The bank canned its digital Australian dollar, known as the AUDN, so Rob Waugh and Drew Bradford left to set up their own product, to be called Ubiquity.
- James Eyers
May 2024
- Opinion
- AI
Don’t believe the artificial intelligence hype
Economic theory and the available data justify a more modest, realistic outlook for productivity gains from AI.
- Daron Acemoglu
Medicare numbers, prescription information taken in MediSecure hack
The government has reassured Australians that no documents need to be replaced as a result of the hack on the little-known technology company.
- Nick Bonyhady
Smart wallet encryption to get $23.4m budget boost
Amid a wave of identity theft, $11 million has also been pledged over four years to upgrade the Credential Protection Register.
- Tom Burton
Health portal ‘plagued by incomplete records and poor usability’
Poor usability and incomplete records are frustrating uptake of the My Health Record portal, while the Productivity Commission estimates benefits of around $5.4 billion a year if it can be made to work.
- Tom Burton
April 2024
Meet the doctors whose virtual ED is easing the load on hospitals
In outer Melbourne, a virtual emergency department has offered 250,000 patients treatment and created a model to help keep ageing Baby Boomers out of hospital.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Government Observed
Why government has an Excel problem
Swaths of the public service still have to use tools and manual procedures from the early 1980s, when desktop computing first arrived in government.
- Tom Burton
AI could ‘break the productivity cycle’ for construction
Engineering firm Aurecon says the developing use of artificial intelligence could supercharge efficiency on big projects.
- Michael Bleby
March 2024
- Exclusive
- Services Australia
Why you might be about to see a lot more of this logo
myID, which could become as prominent as Medicare and myGov, will be the online tool Australians use to prove their identity without passports and licences.
- Tom Burton
When it comes to how we pay, Apple is coming for the big banks
Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn says policymakers need to be alert to the dangers of ceding important industries to global tech platforms without scrutiny.
- James Eyers
- Analysis
- Government Observed
Could turning laws into code help fix the housing shortage?
Allowing computers to read and interpret laws based on sophisticated rules could revolutionise regulation and the way you interact with government.
- Tom Burton
Australians unconvinced about AI safety: survey
There is a wide disparity in those who trust AI across different Australian regions, according to a new survey on trust in government services.
- Tom Burton
February 2024
‘New era’ ASX starts with redundancies as CEO swings axe
Technology staff are the most affected by redundancies before ASX’s half-yearly earnings due on Friday, as it looks to reorganise after its CHESS disaster.
- Paul Smith
How nursing prepared this government leader
Newly appointed NSW Customer Service secretary Graeme Head learnt how to work in fast-changing workplaces as an emergency nurse at Sydney’s RPA Hospital.
- Tom Burton
January 2024
Australia’s best and worst government websites ranked
A push to improve access and make content easier to find has resulted in a major improvement in government website rankings, with one surprising result.
- Tom Burton