James Riley

In a recent interview, the outwardly mild-mannered former Google chief executive and chairman Eric Schmidt made some bold statements. He revealed that ‘his friends” at the forefront of artificial intelligence have modelled the power needs of the world’s new energy guzzling technology. They have concluded the United States will run out of power by 2028. That’s quite a prediction about the dark fate of the western world’s superpower by one of its most esteemed tech states-people. The US is locked in a fierce rivalry for technological supremacy with China in the new AI-enabled digital and post-industrial revolution.

Five Australian health science startups will share in $3.25 million in additional funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) as part of stage two of a program being managed by digital health accelerator ANDHealth. The five companies – Eugene, Atmo Biosciences, Immunosis, Metabolic Health Solutions and Humanetix – will use the funding to conduct further studies and scale their businesses to solve challenges across genomics and genetic testing, gut and metabolic health, immune deficiencies and improving clinical efficiencies. “Funding from the Australian Government’s MRFF will support these high-growth potential companies to tackle major health issues impacting Australians on a daily basis,” ANDHealth chief executive Bronwyn Le Grice said.

In a world where rival superpowers the United States and China are spending many trillions of dollars to win the new digital industrial revolution, Australia’s vital economic statistics and low ambition presents more Banana Republic than a serious and resilient middleweight player. At the beginning of the next quarter of this tech-led and disrupted 21st century, Australia is the least self-sufficient economy in the developed world with the lowest share of manufacturing – around 5.8 per cent – of any OECD country. Add to that our often lamented third-world level economic complexity ranking and our low business dynamism. If Silicon Valley types – love ‘em or hate ‘em – live to disrupt industries and have successfully done so over several decades, Australian business and policy leaders have for too long been preoccupied with maintaining the status quo.

The National Reconstruction Fund’s inaugural chief investment officer Dr Mary Manning has joined a stellar line-up of speakers at the 2024 InnovationAus Awards for Excellence that are being held in Sydney on the evening of October 30. As the lead investment officer at the federal government’s signature $15 billion industry development fund, Dr Manning’s keynote will be eagerly anticipated as the industry’s best entrepreneurs and innovators look for insights into the NRF investment strategy. Dr Manning has hit the ground running since she joined the National Reconstruction Fund in July after more than 25 years’ experience in finance, economics and investment in Australia and overseas, including in New York, London and Singapore. Now in its fourth year, the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence are a celebration of Australia’s best entrepreneurs, innovators and deep tech researchers. The winners will be announced at the Awards black-tie extravaganza at The Venue Alexandria in Sydney. You can book your tickets here.

Frustration over the management at the Tech Council (TCA) of the Richard White scandal has spilled over into a festering resentment among members about the way Mr White was appointed to the council’s board in the first place. A number of TCA members contacted by InnovationAus say Mr White should resign from the board immediately, saying that his actions – as revealed through mainstream media headlines in the past week – do not align with Tech Council ambitions to attract more women into the tech sector and to improve the industry’s gender equity performance. Others have said the Tech Council leadership owes it to its members to get in front the scandal, and to remove Mr White from the board whether he wants to go or not. But the real anger among members contacted by InnovationAus is reserved for the imposition of changed governance arrangements at the council that allowed Mr White to be appointed without members being allowed to vote. In fact, at the TCA annual general meeting in June, members were not even told who had nominated to fill a vacant seat created through the resignation of founding board member Mina Radhakrishnan.

Once the embattled software entrepreneur Richard White had resigned from WiseTech Global – the company he founded 30 years ago – it was only a matter of time before his resignation landed at the Technology Council of Australia as well. It didn’t take long. After a day of high drama, Mr White resigned as a director and chief executive officer at WiseTech late in the afternoon, and by early evening he had also advised the directors of the Tech Council that he would resign from the TCA board. “The board have accepted Richard’s resignation effective immediately,” a spokesperson for the industry group said.The resignations follow weeks of scandalous headlines related to a court case involving an ex-lover and revelations of dubious alleged mentoring arrangements.

Gold Coast-based rocket maker Gilmour Space Technologies passed a historic milestone on Monday after being granted the Australian Space Agency’s first-ever orbital launch permit, paving the way for the maiden flight of its three-stage Eris vehicle as early as December.The permit was officially signed off by Industry minister Ed Husic late on Monday afternoon, starting the clock on a mandatory 30-day wait period before the Eris launch window opens.The launch vehicle has been at the company’s Bowen Orbital Spaceport since the start of the year and was first fully integrated and put into its vertical launch position in April and has undergone extensive testing while waiting on final regulatory clearance.

Macquarie University has ratcheted-up ambitions for commercialising technology in the semiconductor industry, launching an on-campus Silicon Platforms Lab (SiP Lab) in collaboration with local startup Atto Devices. The structure of the collaboration is effectively a mirror opposite of a university ‘spin-out’. It is instead a university ‘spin-in’, where industry startup Atto Devices has been brought into the university, and will co-locate at the SiP Lab to serve as the primary commercialisation pathway for the labs research. The partners say there is a genuine opportunity for Australia to build a vibrant, fabless semiconductor industry – with the focus in chip design and technology integration, rather than on foundry services.

The federal opposition will on Monday press for a Parliamentary inquiry into the government’s investment in US-based quantum computing startup PsiQuantum, claiming questions remain about whether proper probity processes were followed and if the company was given preferential treatment. Newly-released documents obtained under the Freedom of Information regime confirm that PsiQuantum representatives had met with government officials – including the Industry minister Ed Husic – months before the appointment of external probity advisers to the proposed investment. Mr Fletcher, who is also manager of Opposition business in the House and shadow minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy, will on Monday ask Parliament to establish a Select Committee on PsiQuantum Funding to investigate the processes that led to the federal government investing $470 million into the company. The motion also calls for the committee to inquire into a rushed Expression of Interest process conducted with the rest of the quantum sector in Australia, and into the management of perceived or actual conflicts of interest.

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation’s first ever investment is out the door, marking an important milestone for industrial policy in Australia, and a landmark event in the life of the Albanese government. The $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund is a signature policy, announced well in advance of the 2022 election as the largest ever peacetime investment in Australian industry. The fund is the foundational element of this government’s re-industrialisation agenda, which now includes the $22 billion Future Made in Australia program of work. This first NRF investment in Toowoomba-based Russell Mineral Equipment will be welcomed by Australian industry. It will be, as Industry minister Ed Husic said in a statement, “the first in a long line in a long line of investments” aimed at rebuilding sovereign manufacturing capability.