Today
National fire warning overhaul highlights dangers
New national simplified fire warning signs will be rolled out ahead of summer, powered by new more accurate fire behaviour modelling developed by the Bureau of Meteorology.
- 1 hr ago
- Tom Burton
- Opinion
- Infrastructure
The NAIF is no longer an abject failure
The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility has come a long way in the past three years. The Albanese government can do more to underwrite its success.
- Updated
- Grant Wilson
This Month
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Barilaro imbroglio leaves a stench at the top of NSW government
The whole Barilaro affair is a major red flag for any ambitious private sector executive looking to ‘make a difference’ by working in government.
- Tom Burton
Get a PCR test, not a RAT, early so anti-virals can work, says AMA
People with COVID symptoms should get a PCR test to get an early accurate diagnosis so as to take advantage of anti-viral drugs
- Tom Burton and Jill Margo
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Government tilts the procurement playing field
New quotas that require federal agencies to bias their procurement towards small and medium businesses are an attempt to leverage the government’s purchasing power.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Omicron returns with vengeance
As predicted a new variant of the omicron sub-variant is fuelling a winter wave, raising pressure for a return of some controls to limit community spread over the next six weeks
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Why it’s important for Australia to get data regulation right
The lack of a central agency with the technical and policy depth to advise on digital regulation is hampering reform efforts leaving Australia a decade behind.
- Tom Burton
UK’s Smart Pension group to expand to Australia
UK retirement fintech operator Smart is to establish an Australian office in Melbourne
- Tom Burton
Federal regulators take aim at tech platforms’ algorithms
After a decade of hands-off regulation, four federal regulators are stepping up their oversight of the digital economy focusing on computer algorithms, automated decision-making and digital transparency.
- Tom Burton
Small business to get 20pc of annual $70b government tenders
New procurement rules to encourage federal agencies to bid for an annual $70 billion of Commonwealth contracts came into effect July 1.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Increased scrutiny for Influence peddling
Queensland will have the strongest rules for regulating lobbyists after the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk committed to new rules to improve reporting and stop so-called “dual hatting.”
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
The high price of being frank and fearless
Senior Queensland public servants are holding back on advice to the government for fear of paying a high price for dissent, according to a new report into the integrity and culture of the state public service.
- Tom Burton
Virologists predict new ‘centaurus’ variant will drive next virus wave
A new second-generation COVID-19 variant known as BA.2.75 has multiple immune-escaping mutations, which virologists say is likely to drive a new wave of global infection.
- Tom Burton
Robodebt architect to head military research
Labor is set to announce Kathryn Campbell as head of the newly created Advanced Strategic Research Agency.
- Michael Roddan
- Analysis
- Annastacia Palaszczuk
Queensland to release cabinet papers within days, not years
Queensland’s opening up of cabinet to public scrutiny ends 160 years of confidentiality and paves the way for other Australian jurisdictions to release all documents
- Tom Burton
NSW government ‘over-reliant’ on consultants: auditor-general
The NSW government’s “over-reliance” on consultants is wasting public funds, and the way external advisers are hired and managed needs an overhaul, according to NSW auditor-general Margaret Crawford.
- Edmund Tadros
June
Dreyfus pledges sweeping data privacy reforms
After more than a decade of stalled reforms, new attorney-general Mark Dreyfus is pledging to bring sweeping reforms to Australia’s anachronistic data privacy laws.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
Moving on the ‘long game’ of public sector reform
Federal public sector reform is to be rebooted with the appointment of former environment secretary Gordon de Brouwer as secretary for public sector reform.
- Tom Burton
- Analysis
- Inside Government
‘Jobs for the boys’ is no longer acceptable
The uproar over the appointment of John Barilaro to a plum New York trade job reveals a higher standard is now being imposed on public-sector integrity.
- Tom Burton
Public servants face pressure over ‘frank and fearless’ advice
Senior public servants are under increasing pressure from ministers and are having to draw on reserves of courage to give frank and fearless advice, says former federal department secretary Renee Leon.
- Tom Burton
