Month: February 2021

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AMT: Firstly, tell us about the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Bill that was passed by the NSW Parliament in November? What are the key points of the legislation and what is it aiming to achieve? Matthew Kean: The NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap is our plan to power NSW into the future and cement our State’s rightful place as an energy and economic superpower. As the NSW Energy Minister, my priority is ensuring we have the policy settings in place to keep the lights on and get electricity prices down for families and businesses across NSW. Our Roadmap and the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Act that underpins it will do exactly that. Our Roadmap will bring 12 gigawatts of renewable energy and two gigawatts of storage such as pumped hydro, online by 2030. It will inject $32bn of private investment into the State and deliver 9,000 jobs – mostly in the regions – by 2030. It is expected to deliver average electricity bill savings of $130…

About 40% of businesses that apply to win Defence work have insufficient cyber security measures to meet Defence’s standards. The guide will help industry overcome those issues to become ‘Defence-ready’, in turn supporting the Government’s $270bn investment in Defence capability over the next decade. Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price launched the Working Securely with Defence guide alongside Australian Industry Group national president Chris Jenkins this week. It was jointly developed by Defence, Australian Industry Group, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) over the past 12 months. “The development of this guide has been a genuine team effort, drawing on deep expertise and connections across Government, Defence, Australian defence industry and industry associations,” said Price. “It has been developed by industry for industry and will help businesses understand what they need to do to improve their security practices. “The guide also provides direction and support to current and prospective defence industry…

At Interlease, we believe that manufacturing will be firmly in the driver’s seat in leading the Australian economy to not just recover but grow and thrive in the post-COVID world. To do so, it is imperative that all businesses have the tools available to them to help them succeed. In June 2020, the Government announced it would be increasing the Instant Asset Write-Off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000. On 6 October it went one step further and removed the threshold altogether, meaning any asset, new or used, could be immediately depreciated up until 30 June 2022. The scheme is available to all businesses that have an aggregated annual turnover of less than $50m. Small businesses with an aggregated annual turnover of less that $10m can also deduct the balance of their simplified depreciation pool at the end of the income year. As an…

The first data the team at Salvagnini has available is the percentage of its systems with the ACUT option – where the system and parameters are set up for air cutting – compared to the total number of lasers sold. “If we analyse the data from the last few years, over 90% of laser systems have been supplied with the ACUT option,” explains Pierandrea Bello, Product Manager for laser technologies at Salvagnini. “This is an important figure, but it is not in itself sufficient for understanding how many customers actually cut with air. This is why we use data from LINKS, our Internet of Things (IoT) solution used to monitor system performance in real time and to conduct analyses. “The database consists of a significant sample of our laser systems installed around the world. It includes a…

Published by One Mandate Group, Australia's Nobel Laureates Volume III (NL3): State of Our Innovation Nation 2021 and Beyond celebrates this country’s distinguished record of achievement in this area. Not only has Australia won a significant number of Nobel Prizes, but that we have a very high per capita ratio of prizes, punching well above our weight globally. The book features illuminating profiles of Nobel laureates over the last century, from father and son duo William and Lawrence Bragg, nominated in 1915 for their work in the creation of X-ray crystallography, to astronomer Brian Paul Schmidt, whose work in providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating saw him nominated in 2011. The book captures how these remarkable individuals pushed against the existing boundaries of human knowledge. The book also examines the current state of innovation in Australia and how we rank globally, and what we can do to build on that foundation and seize the opportunities of the future. A series of essays from a variety of expert commentators provide…

With X, Y and Z axes traverses of 14,000mm x 13,000mm x 3,500mm, plus an 11m rotary table to permit turning operations in the same set-up, the five-axis giant, supplied by Starrag Group, will be used to machine hull elements and other high-precision components for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN)’s Attack class submarines. The order for the machine comes after the Federal Government selected French company Naval Group to deliver a fleet of 12 regionally superior submarines, to be built in a modern construction yard in Osborne. The Future Submarine Program will deliver Australia a capability that can be built, operated and maintained with sovereignty, which maximises opportunities for Australian industry throughout all phases of the programme. As the design of the Attack class progresses, the Naval Group is continuing to deliver on a commitment to achieve this through its pool of suppliers. This pool now includes the Starrag Group, which was selected to supply a Droop+Rein G 110TT HR100 C vertical gantry machine, capable of handling both…

Businesses with projects in the space sector are the first to be able to apply for grants to help them commercialise ideas or processes, or integrate into global supply chains. Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the MMI will build on the billions of dollars in investment to get the economic conditions right – and create meaningful, long-term change for Australian manufacturing. “This matched government funding is designed to support our manufacturers to become competitive, resilient and scale-up to take on the world, which will in turn create jobs for Australians – both now and for generations to come,” said Andrews. “Funding from the MMI will help boost investment in the growth of the manufacturing sector, enhance Australia’s reputation, open up new markets, create new skilled jobs and increase exports.” To guide the types of projects the Government will back in space manufacturing under the MMI, an industry-led road map has also been released. “This road map sets out our vision for manufacturing investment in the…

After an extraordinary 2020, the dawn of the new year has brought with it an Australian economy continuing to grow and recover, and new opportunities for businesses in a COVID-normal Australia. For manufacturing organisations and the industry as a whole, the importance of innovating, growing and playing a central role in Australia’s ongoing economic recovery is imperative. While many will be understandably keen to forget 2020 altogether, last year’s Federal Budget announcement was a good one for manufacturers, with the Federal Government putting a large focus on – and announcing a significant investment in – the Australian manufacturing industry. Over the course of the next four years, billions of dollars will be invested in projects that will grow emerging technologies, or enhance those in which Australian manufacturers already perform strongly. A few short months after the budget announcement, the Australian economy is already showing remarkable signs of recovery, coming out of nominal recession in December as most states and territories continued easing restrictions,…

The innovation focuses on the advanced upcycling of biosolids and biogas, by-products of the wastewater treatment process. Developed by researchers at RMIT University, the patented technology uses a special material derived from biosolids to spark chemical reactions for producing hydrogen from biogas. The approach means all the materials needed for hydrogen production could be sourced on-site at a wastewater treatment plant, without the need for expensive catalysts. The method also traps the carbon found in biosolids and biogas, which could in future enable a near zero-emission wastewater sector. Lead researcher Associate Professor Kalpit Shah said existing commercial methods for producing hydrogen were emission and capital-intensive, and relied heavily on natural gas. “Our alternative technology offers a sustainable, cost-effective, renewable and efficient approach to hydrogen production,” said Shah, Deputy Director (Academic) of the ARC Training Centre for Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids Resource at RMIT. “To enable the transition to a circular economy, we need technology that enables us to squeeze the full value from resources that would ordinarily go to…

The company, part of the FMP Group, has signed up with Greenfleet, a leading not-for-profit environmental organisation, to offset 170 company and employee vehicles on a mission to protect the climate by restoring our Australian and New Zealand forests. The move by Bendix involves its employees ensuring the greatest impact on carbon emission reduction is achieved; it is just one of many initiatives being introduced by the company to protect the environment. Greenfleet is Australia’s first carbon offset provider and since 1997 the organisation has planted 9.6 million trees, creating more than 500 biodiverse forests in Australia and New Zealand, which are protected for 100 years and have offset more than 3.5 million tonnes of CO2-e. Greenfleet is currently working with more than 400 organisations, many of which have been offsetting carbon emissions for over 10 years. Using the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM), developed by CSIRO and approved by the then Australian Department of the Environment, Greenfleet ensures the carbon uptake of each forest at each planting site. FMP Group (Australia)…

Nowadays it’s reasonably often you’ll see a Telstra in a well-to-do neighbourbourhood. Electric-powered passenger aircraft are not as prevalent as electric vehicles (EVs), but electrified flight is fast approaching. The first Australian flight – a Pipistrel Alpha Electro two-seater – took off from Jandakot Airport in Western Australia in January 2018. In December Sydney Seaplanes announced plans to retrofit one of its Cessnas with electric motors made by MagniX, a leader in electric propulsion founded in Gold Coast, Queensland. Sydney Seaplanes hopes to offer Sydney Harbour-Palm Beach e-flights in early 2023 and possibly to Canberra after that. Further afield, the Norwegian airport operator Avenor has set a goal that all short flights (90 minutes and under) will be electric-powered by 2040. Dr Jake Whitehead, Tritium E-Mobility Fellow at the University of Queensland, says there are two main types of electric aircraft: short-haul planes and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL,…

The findings highlight an urgent need to improve digital skills to ensure economic recovery from COVID-19 and to avoid jeopardising a $10bn growth in the technology, media and communications industries by 2025. The new report, ‘Ready, Set, Upskill – Effective Training for the Jobs of Tomorrow’ was released by RMIT Online, in collaboration with Deloitte Access Economics, following surveys of 1,000 Australian working professionals and employers. The report also revealed that three out of four Australians want to learn about emerging technologies, such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and that four in five Australian business leaders think that adopting new technologies is important to achieve business goals. RMIT Online CEO Helen Souness said responding to Australia’s digital skills gap is a national imperative, and Australia’s economic recovery will rely heavily on the availability of these skills to power business transformation. “The events of last year have underlined the urgency of bridging this skills gap,” she said.…