By Anna Skarbek, Climateworks Centre; Anna Malos, Monash University, and Michael Li, Monash University Every bit of warming matters if we want to avoid the worst impacts for climate change, as the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows. In 2020, we released modelling showing how Australia could get to net zero…
The Australian and United Kingdom governments have signed an MoU, agreeing to cooperate on innovation, research and commercialisation of quantum technology, during the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park this week. A joint statement (accessible here) “reaffirms the strong technology relationship” between the pair, supporting joint activities under the Australia-UK Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership…
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University Last night ABC’s Four Corners investigated the problem-plagued Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro power station, focusing on a bogged tunnelling machine, toxic gas and an unexpected volume of sludge. While these specific problems are new, we have criticised this project since 2019 and outlined six key problems even earlier elsewhere. How…
By Tony Wood, Grattan Institute Australia has a legislated target to reduce greenhouse emissions, a federal government with commitments to increase the share of renewable electricity and reduce power prices, and a globally important economic opportunity at its feet. In the second half of the government’s current term, delivery looks hard across the board. All…
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) has recommended that the federal government be more ambitious with its decarbonisation goals and commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 rather than 2050 The Learned Academy representing almost 900 of Australia’s applied science, technology and engineering professionals announced a new position statement on…
Australia’s expenditure on innovation public and private has fallen for the past decade, and continues to fall under the new federal government. Business expenditure on research and development (BERD) was up 14 per cent over 2021-22, new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show, though the nation’s total spend on R&D as a proportion of GDP…
A review of the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy is underway, led by the federal department of infrastructure in collaboration with industry and state and territory governments. According to a statement from federal infrastructure minister Catherine King on Thursday, the strategy is a “holistic, coordinated and multi-modal approach to increase the safety, productivity and…
University of Wollongong spinout business Hysata officially opened its new 8,000 square metre global headquarters and factory in Port Kembla and was awarded over $23 million in government support on Monday as it progresses its high-efficiency electrolyser towards commercialisation. The company, which closed a $42.5 million Series A round in August last year, said it…
The eight-member board of the National Reconstruction Fund, the federal government’s signature manufacturing program, has been announced, with Founding Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Martijn Wilder as its Chair. In a statement on Wednesday, industry minister Ed Husic said the experience of the independent board – which will make investment decisions for the…
In recent days @AuManufacturing readers have critiqued federal governments efforts to ‘reform the Productivity Commission (see below). Here in our final part of a series, Tim Buckley argues Australia cannot afford more of the same from the PC, which continued to misread profound societal and economic change underway globally. Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ announcement yesterday of…
