Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on
Scientists have shown that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century.
Vast stores of carbon in U.S. forest soils could be released by rising global temperatures, according to a new study. Scientists found that heating soil in Wisconsin and North Carolina woodlands by 10 and 20 degrees increased the release of carbon dioxide by up to eight times. They showed for the first time that most carbon in topsoil is vulnerable to this warming effect.
Scientists have discovered melt-glass material in a thin layer of sedimentary rock in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Syria. According to the researchers, the material — which dates back nearly 13,000 years — was formed at temperatures of 1,700 to 2,200 degrees Celsius (3,100 to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit), and is the result of a cosmic body impacting Earth.
Scientists have shown that the observed ocean warming over the last 50 years is consistent with climate models only if the models include the impacts of observed increases in greenhouse gas during the 20th century.
Scientists have taken a critical look at the various factors that have long been prime climate-change suspects. One in particular: the role of population growth.
CANBERRA Airport has pledged to build a $140 million high speed rail facility adjacent to the new airport terminal if the federal and NSW governments go ahead with the multi-billion dollar project.
The airport, which has long been an advocate of a high speed rail link between Sydney and Canberra, will today unveil plans for the facility amid the ongoing stalemate over where to build Sydney’s second airport.
Canberra Airport Managing Director Stephen Byron said previous reports had shown that with high speed rail passengers could travel from Canberra to Sydney in 57 minutes.
“Passengers will be able to transfer from arriving aircraft to their train in under five minutes without baggage and be in Sydney in less than an hour,” Mr Byron said.
He said Canberra Airport was today presenting plans for “a superb, multi-modal, transport facility to underline the high speed rail’s integration into Canberra Airport, in accordance with (NSW) Premier O’Farrell’s vision”.
A draft 10-year NSW government blueprint for the digital economy “doesn’t say much at all and will deliver little benefit to the economy as far as technology is concerned”.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The Australian Technology Park, Redfern. Photo: Ben Rushton
That’s the view of Freelancer.com chief Matt Barrie, who sat on the taskforce that worked on the NSW Digital Economy Industry Action Plan – due for release for public consultation in the next month or so but obtained by this website.
Hailed by the state government and taskforce as setting “the direction and vision for our state over the coming decade and beyond”, Mr Barrie describes it in part as ”fluff”, ”window dressing” and a “white elephant”.
The taskforce includes a representative each from IBM, Telstra, Optus, Foxtel, CSIRO, integrated media company Omnilab, electricity network Ausgrid, digital production company The Project Factory and venture capital firm OneVentures.
But in an email sent to taskforce members last week, Mr Barrie says:
“After attending the first meeting and seeing how the committee was poorly defined (read: “digital”) and stacked (read: no technology companies), with the exception of Ms Deaker, who runs a technology venture capital firm … and of course the CSIRO, it became clear that this would be yet another embarrassing initiative to try to build up the tech industry.
“I mean, in the first meeting there was discussion of a ‘smart traffic light’ project in Parramatta that was being proposed to roll out across the country.
“I mean seriously guys, WTF? What are we talking about here when we say digital? Technology? Or a mish mash of interests from the film, media, telco, services and infrastructure industries? If so, what could it possible achieve for our ‘digital future’?”
But Mr Barrie, who heads the three-year-old online outsourcing business that turned over $35 million last year, has poured scorn on some and ridicule on others (read his comments on each at the end).
He proposes an alternative plan.
The problem in Australia, he says, is declining enrolments in engineering and science, and the fact that schools are not placing enough emphasis on IT.
High school students “are exposed to a whole bunch of subjects that frankly haven’t changed much in the last 20, 30 or 50 years”, he said.
“They are told through well established patterns of behaviour that ‘law’ and ‘medicine’ are the pinnacle career paths to aspire towards.
“Students graduate and don’t even know what the word ‘engineer’ means.
“The two subjects in IT that we teach today in a few schools are so ridiculously appalling; you’d think that they were written by The Onion circa 1950.”
Mr Barrie lays out a detailed plan for how the IT syllabus can be rewritten for a modest cost, with involvement from the National Computer Science School.
And he suggests new programs instead of those suggested in the report.
Mr Barrie says there is no other industry that can create so much wealth for the country with such low capital expense, and there’s no other industry where “a 28 year old can build a $50 billion company in eight years”.
“That’s a lot of employment in a high skills area, and a lot of corporate tax,” he writes.
“However fluffy marketing, building buildings, hand waving and word smithing reports for political correctness isn’t really part of it, in my opinion.”
THE RECOMMENDATIONS
In an interview before the leaking of the report, NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner told this website the report’s findings would be “taken up by government in a policy sense”.
1. International Digital Leadership – Attracting business opportunities to NSW by positioning the state as a “digital global leader” and promoting the state’s “digital product and services capabilities”.
Strategies include increasing global exports; hosting high-calibre conferences to showcase NSW digital businesses and market Sydney as “Silicon Boomerang”; an online portal for “digital business owners”; target specific hot spots such as mobile and apps; government leadership through early adoption of digital solutions like e-learning and e-health; and appointing a “digital ambassador”.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Spend money on window dressing.”
2. Digital Precinct – Establish a “digital innovation precinct” with a new hub at Carriage Works. Longer term the precinct will include an “open and vibrant digital community space” covering the “entire railway yards from ATP [Australian Technology Park in Redfern] through to Central Station”.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Build a building in a terrible area of town that has always been earmarked for technology, but always been a white elephant because it’s a disused railyard out the back of Redfern.”
3. Connected Regional Communities – Stimulate the “digital culture” of regional NSW communities and improve technology literacy.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Fluff, but we needed the word ‘regional’ in the report so we could pass the keyword check.”
4. Digital Skills – Support programs like the National Computer Science School (NCSS), FIRST Robotics, CSIRO’s Scientists in Schools and STELR (Science and Technology Education Leveraging Relevance); teach teachers digital skills; “modify” the high school technology curriculum; use technology more in the classroom (a whole section is devoted to the $25 Raspberry Pi single-board computer); and establish links with industry.
Mr Barrie’s take: “NCSS is a fantastic program and frankly my company funds for some bizarre reason more than the Australian government in total each year.”
5. Finance and Investment Channels – Increase funding available to NSW high growth companies. Last year only $120 million of $1.8 trillion available funds in Australia was invested by venture capital firms.
Strategies including creating an “office for government funding” to advise businesses on ways to capitalise on existing federal funding schemes like Commercialisation Australia and the R&D tax incentive; creating a minimum $20 million “future fund for digital investment”; encouraging corporate ICT investment; encouraging superannuation funds to invest in innovation; assessing the implementation of “crowd-funding” (businesses funded by the community i.e. Kickstarter); setting up mentoring programs; reducing red tape; and offering tax and other incentives to organisations prepared to invest in innovation.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Instead of proposing we lobby the federal government on tax reform, unpicking what they’ve done with option plans, passing crowd funding legislation, and basically create a legislative environment to allow start-ups to flourish and attract investors, let’s put $20 million into a fund to try to bribe start-ups to use the building we build in Redfern.”
6. SME-Corporation-Government Networks – Create collaborative networks that link tech businesses with corporate and public partners for investment, trade and business development.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Not sure what to say here but again we need to include “SME” for keyword density in the report.”
7. Open Data Innovation – Facilitate access to open government and public sector information, empowering citizens and organisations to use the information to drive innovation. Strategies include educating public bodies on how to make the data they collect useful to others; implementing an “open data initiative; and building a public forum.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Could be better worded like Obama has just said: ‘Every government department is now required to have an API.’
8. Integrated Port Logistics Systems – Help industry develop an integrated port logistics system to ensure safe and efficient passage of freight from producer to consumer.
Mr Barrie’s take: “Not sure what on earth this is doing here … should be in the infrastructure committee, not this taskforce which is supposed to be working on how we can build up the technology industry in this country. Because representatives from Telstra, Optus, the film industry and Freelancer.com are totally qualified to talk about container terminals. Not.”
The 53-page report was circulated to taskforce members last Tuesday and they were given just a day and a half to sign-off. The “final version” was then expected to be handed to the NSW government by the end of last week.
“If no response is received, we’ll keep the process moving and will take ‘nil’ response as your approval to release,” wrote Michael Harrington of the NSW Trade and Investment department in an email to taskforce members, seen by this website.
Mr Barrie suggests inviting technology entrepreneurs such as Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of Australian-based global technology powerhouse Atlassian, on to the taskforce (“soon to be, if not already, Australia’s next big billion-dollar technology company”).
However, he said Mr Cannon-Brookes told him: “Mate, I did that last year, and it was the first, and last government committee I will ever do.”
The chairman of the taskforce, IBM research and development director Glenn Wightwick, said in a statement through the NSW Department of Trade & Investment that the taskforce had engaged in a “rigorous process of consultation” for views from across the industry.
He said the final draft report would take into account more than 30 written submissions together with views expressed across seven regional industry consultations.
“The taskforce itself comprises expertise, knowledge and insight from highly regarded individuals from right across the industry, and the final draft report will represent the efforts and views of the entire team,” Mr Wightwick said.
Foxtel chief information officer Robyn Elliott, who also sits on the taskforce, said the draft report seen by the Herald, which was labelled version 32, was “by no means final yet”.
After the state government has read the report it will go out to another round of public consultations before the plan is finalised.
“Matt’s a member of the taskforce like the rest of us so we’ve all got our comments on it,” she said.
But Ms Elliott rejected Barrie’s suggestions that companies such as Foxtel were not the right companies to include on a taskforce looking at building the digital economy.
“It’s not just about start-ups it’s about how all businesses can get access to digital skills,” she told the Herald.
Another taskforce member, Jennifer Wilson, director of The Project Factory, said Mr Barrie “does raise an awful lot of really good points” but many would need federal government support.
Responding to Mr Barrie’s comments about the digital precinct near Redfern, Ms Wilson said there was a much richer discussion in taskforce meetings about what the digital precinct was than what made it into the draft report.
“The committee is not suggesting that we take those disused rail yards and turn it into start-up central,” she said, adding the taskforce recognised there was already significant start-up activity in Ultimo, Surry Hills and Pyrmont.
Port Kembla will be privatised, speeding fines will be increased and the equivalent of 10,000 public sector jobs will be cut by the NSW government to help bring the state budget back to surplus from a forecast deficit of more than $800 million next financial year.
The Treasurer, Mike Baird, has also today announced major changes to stamp duty and other property concessions designed to boost the purchase of newly constructed homes in NSW alongside measures to fast-track the approval of major housing developments.
In a further revenue-raising measure, the government has flagged the sale of the rights to the future revenue stream from NSW lotteries.
Delivering his second budget today, Mr Baird said it was set against the backdrop of a highly volatile global economy, but that it “builds for the future of NSW”.
“We have taken many difficult decisions,” he said. “Some will not be popular, but they are the right decisions for challenging economic times”.
The budget papers show NSW will record a deficit of $337 million this financial year, rising to an $824 millon deficit in 2012-13. This is largely due to a collapse in expected GST payments from the Commonwealth of more than $5 billion since last September’s budget.
The budget is forecast to return to a $289 million surplus in 2013-14, raising to $562 million in 2014-15 and $1.17 billion in 2015-16.
The government has already announced the planned long-term lease of Port Botany but today announced that Port Kembla will be included in the transaction. This was “to fund priority infrastructure projects”.
While Port Botany is expected to raise more than $2 billion, it is understood proceeds of around $500 million are anticipated from Port Kembla.
The budget contains significant changes to boost the purchase of newly-built homes in NSW.
The existing First Home Owners Grant will increase from $7000 to $15,000 from October before dropping back to $10,000 from January 1, 2014, for buyers of newly-constructed homes worth up to $650,000.
The stamp duty exemption for purchasers of newly-built homes who are not first home buyers – previously worth around $22,000 for an average Sydney home – will be axed and replaced with a $5000 New Home Grant for properties up to $650,000, phased out from $550,000.
Up to $500 million will be used to “target critical infrastructure” and accelerate 76,000 new housing lots and the budget includes a $50 million incentive for councils to clear their backlog of development applications.
Mr Baird said the government’s Building the State package would also “fast-track large-scale housing proposals which demonstrate private sector readiness and local government endorsement”.
As previously announced, speeding fines will rise by 12.5 per cent. This is forecast to raise an extra $180 million over four years.
A labour expense cap will be imposed on all government departments to cut the equivalent of 10,000 public sector jobs.
This is on top of the 5000 public service redundancies announced in last year’s budget.
However, directors general of government departments will be given the flexibility to find the cuts by reducing contractor levels or other labour-related savings.
The measure is anticipated to save $2.2 billion over four years.
Mr Baird told Parliament the budget featured “the right decisions for difficult times”.
Tropical Depression 05W has been born in the western North Pacific, a couple of hundred miles south of Guam, and NASA’s Terra satellite captured its “baby picture.”
This e-mail update was generated automatically based on your subscriptions. Some updates may belong to more than one category, resulting in duplicate notices.
