Joseph Brookes

Facebook, Google and TikTok parent companies will be charged penalties if they fail to strike new commercial agreements with news publishers under a scheme announced by the Albanese government on Wednesday to support journalism.

The federal government will fund exploratory quantum work in biosecurity, health, transport and energy networks with up to $18 million in a bid to develop the local sector and pull the technology into the mainstream.

The Sydney Startup Hub home to popular accelerators and dozens of budding companies will be shifted out of the CBD to the Tech Central precinct next year to get founders closer to researchers and larger companies.

Nine Australian researchers will split $6 million in federal funding to work with partners from east Asia on projects like hydrogen, AI, advanced

Australia's first lunar rover will be designed and built by the ELO consortium after it beat out a bid by rival group AROSE for the $42 million in federal funding and spot on the NASA mission.

Meta will pay up to $50 million to users in Australia as part of its settlement with the privacy regulator over the tech giant's Cambridge Analytica

Gambling and tobacco firms will be excluded from the Research and Development Tax Incentive from next year, after transparency data laid bare tens of millions of dollars in claims for taxpayer funded innovation subsidies.

US Big Tech firms pressured the Albanese government about the findings of its landmark Privacy Act Review last year ahead of Attorney General Mark Dreyfus's decision to reject one of the reviews most seismic recommendations.

A Sydney businessman and his firms have been ordered to pay more than $13 million in penalties for encouraging clients to lodge over-inflated, inaccurate or unsubstantiated claims for research and development tax breaks.

Gifts from tech giants to public officials will be cross checked and publicly reported from next year in an integrity clampdown prompted by a series of procurement scandals. Amid concerns about the “cultivation” of officials, the Digital Transformation Agency will in April start asking suppliers on its panels or with whole of government arrangements to provide a list of their offered and accepted gifts. The DTA will check the quarterly disclosures from companies like Microsoft, IBM, SAP and AWS against official records and report back to the Parliament and provide a public summary in 2026.