Category: Ed Husic

May 9, 2025

A ‘tireless advocate’: Tributes flow for Ed Husic after Cabinet axing

Outgoing Industry and Science minister Ed Husic has been hailed for his efforts to shift the dial on Australia’s key science and technology challenges during his three years in office. Tributes flowed from industry leaders on Friday as news of Mr Husic’s departure from Cabinet and the all-important Industry portfolio reverberated across the country. He…

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May 8, 2025

All eyes on caucus as Ed Husic exits the Industry portfolio

Industry and Science minister Ed Husic is set to be dropped from federal Cabinet, a casualty of post-election factional jostling for positions in Anthony Albanese’s second ministry. But regardless of the composition of the Cabinet or who is named to lead the portfolio, there remains a long list of overhanging work that needs urgent attention,…

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May 7, 2025

Gallagher to retain Finance portfolio in ministry reshuffle

Labor Senator and senior frontbencher Katy Gallagher will retain the Finance portfolio in the Albanese government’s second term, giving her control of whole-of-government technology and keenly anticipated procurement reforms. Senator Gallagher is also “hopeful” of holding onto to her other first-term portfolios of Women, Public Service and Government Services, but the decision is ultimately up…

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May 6, 2025

A reshuffle and a restructure: Tech industry on high alert

Even within a landslide victory of the scale achieved in the reelection of the Albanese government, Ed Husic’s performance in his western Sydney electorate of Chifley was a standout. Across all candidates in the 150 electorates that make up Australia’s lower house of Parliament, the Industry and Science minister recorded the fifth-highest proportion of two-candidate…

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May 5, 2025

Election fallout: Tech and science movers, Husic’s thumping win

Champions of tech and science policy have mostly survived the federal election, but Labor’s thumping win and a handful of retirements will see some bow out amid a period of significant reform. Labor’s clear majority immediately triggered calls for it to be more ambitious in a second term, with new expectations it could double down…

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May 5, 2025

All Albanese’s innovation sweeteners from the election

With Anthony Albanese and Labor claiming a decisive victory at the weekend’s election, attention now turns to the second-term government’s ambitious agenda for the next three years. Buffeted by global trade tensions, Labor rolled out a package of interventionalist industry policies in the lead up to the May 3 ballot to build on its Future…

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April 24, 2025

Three new CRCs backed with $158m

Three new Cooperative Research Centres will launch with $158 million in federal co-funding announced Thursday to start producing regenerative therapies, advance 3D printing and innovate in the care economy. The three centres are the Solutions for Manufacturing Advanced Regenerative Therapies (SMART) CRC, the Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC), and the Care Economy CRC. They…

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April 16, 2025

Husic says AI regulation a priority for re-elected govt

Industry minister Ed Husic says the federal government is committed to finalising its risk-based model for regulating AI despite pull-back in the United States and the European Union. In his first comments on AI since the start of the election campaign, Mr Husic said the government’s proposed mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings would…

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April 11, 2025

Manufacturers blast Coalition over plan to ditch NRF funds

Manufacturing workers on Friday said Australia “cannot risk” a Coalition government after the opposition promised to unwind mostly popular policy work and cut billions in legislated incentives for new industries. “Peter Dutton has voted against manufacturing workers in the parliament, now he is committed to destroying our industry and job security,” Australian Manufacturing Workers Union…

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April 8, 2025

Advanced materials maker snags $1.5m scaleup grant

A Wollongong firm developing materials for use in extreme environments like air travel and nuclear waste disposal will receive $1.5 million from the federal government’s scaleup program to expand its production facilities. The Industry Growth Program grant for Gravitas Technologies was announced on Tuesday by Industry minister Ed Husic and by local member Alison Byrne,…

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April 7, 2025

Declining R&D Tax Incentive payments are a mystery and a worry

Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ federal Budget two weeks ago outlined an expected decline of $640.6 million in payments to companies under the R&D Tax Incentive scheme over the five years to 2028-29. This decline in support for business investment in R&D is both a mystery and a concern. Particularly for a government that has a stated…

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April 1, 2025

Local quantum leaders hopeful ‘serious’ govt investment is coming

Australian quantum leaders remain hopeful the federal government will follow its bet on PsiQuantum with future investments in the local quantum scene, arguing “serious money” is needed to build an effective ecosystem. In the wake of a Budget largely devoid of new funding for technology initiatives, local quantum startups that are also vying to build…

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March 21, 2025

Husic’s AI regulatory plans upended by freewheeling Trump

The federal government has hit pause on plans to regulate AI through the imposition of mandatory guardrails, upended by a fast moving and freewheeling Trump administration that is headed in the opposite direction. Industry and Science minister Ed Husic has been working on building regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence since the middle of 2023. In…

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March 20, 2025

Govt knocked back AI plan before last year’s Budget

A proposed AI investment plan put forward ahead of last year’s federal Budget was knocked back by the government at a time when other developed nations were ramping up their AI spending. The so-called AI Growth Plan was floated last year as a precursor to the proposed AI Capability Plan, announced by the government in December…

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March 14, 2025

PM steers innovation fund to metals manufacturing

Almost half of the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund will be directed to manufacturing metals, the Prime Minister announced on Friday, just days after Australia was hit with US tariffs on steel and aluminium. $750 million from the flagship grants fund announced in the last Budget will go to developing green metal…

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March 6, 2025

Ming Long named new CSIRO chairwoman

Experienced board director Ming Long has been appointed the new chair of national science agency CSIRO, replacing Kathryn Fagg, who has stepped down after more than three years. Ms Long, the CSIRO’s current deputy chair, will also be joined on the board by new director in Vanessa Sullivan, a 20-year veteran of the energy, water…

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March 5, 2025

Govt accepts all Diversity in STEM Review recommendations

The federal government will overhaul its STEM diversity programs and develop a new strategy to drive greater inclusion of under-represented groups, in line with the recommendations from last year’s diversity in STEM review. Industry minister Ed Husic made the surprise announcement at the Southstart conference in Adelaide on Wednesday, pledging to accept all 11 of…

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February 27, 2025

IISA to get new board members as report goes missing in action

Industry minister Ed Husic is expected to make four new appointments to the board of Industry, Innovation and Science Australia within days, but the whereabouts of an inconvenient IISA report delivered to the minister a year ago remains unknown. Together with the appointment a week ago of Peter Rossdeutscher as the new IISA chair, and…

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February 20, 2025

Govt carves out $1bn for green iron play

The Albanese government will invest $1 billion into green iron in a bid to jump start the sector, reduce emissions and revitalise the struggling Whyalla steelworks, the Prime Minister announced on Thursday. Half of the green iron package has been earmarked for the transformation of the South Australian steel plant, which the state government tipped…

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February 19, 2025

Govt’s manufacturing plans missing in action

The government has delivered only one of seven promised plans for developing priority areas of the economy, despite launching the first almost a year ago and billing the plans as cornerstone documents for its manufacturing rebuild. A co-investment plan for Australia’s medical science sector was launched last April, when the government committed to releasing more…

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February 17, 2025

Scale up specialist Peter Rossdeutscher named IISA chair

Adjunct Professor and scale up specialist Peter Rossdeutscher has been appointed the federal government’s top innovation adviser after decades working across the quantum, mining, robotics, and startup sectors. The current Quantum Australia chair, Mr Rossdeutscher was named as the new chair of Industry Innovation and Science Australia (IISA) on Monday by Industry and Science minister…

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February 12, 2025

Path to prosperity: Tiptoeing through a global AI arms race

Anyone expecting Industry and Science minister Ed Husic to use his National Press Club address on Wednesday to detail policies to boost Australia’s R&D investment to the same level as other developed nations were disappointed. To be fair, this was a difficult speech to deliver. But for those in the room, it was an equally…

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February 12, 2025

The 10 charts that lay bare Australia’s $32bn R&D challenge

Australia will need to invest another $25 billion each year to catch up to the OECD average on investment in research and development or another $32 billion to achieve federal Labor’s stretch goal. That is according to a paper launched on Wednesday to kick off a year-long examination of a national R&D system that has…

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February 4, 2025

Local space sector welcomes new regulatory changes

Australia’s space sector regulations have been overhauled for the second time in two years, with the federal government moving to cut down on red tape and speed up launch facility licence approvals. The new rules scrap a requirement that the sitting minister invite applicants to apply for a launch facility licence, ending the current three-stage…

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February 3, 2025

Liftoff for local space tech with $3.6m in federal grants

A radioisotope heater designed to help payloads survive the lunar night and a GPS-free navigation system for rockets are among five projects to share in $3.6 million in federal space funding. Industry and Science minister Ed Husic announced the successful projects in the latest round of the federal government’s Moon to Mars Supply Chain Capability…

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January 31, 2025

Government exposed by lack of action on AI

It has been a week in which artificial intelligence hit the business and political mainstream, and where Australian leaders were well and truly exposed, caught with their pants down. Having focused its attention on regulating AI risks rather than exploiting the AI opportunity, the Albanese government has been embarrassed, caught short by fast-moving events overseas….

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January 29, 2025

Stalled regulatory rollout is slowing adoption of AI tools

The stalled development of a federal regulatory regime is slowing the adoption of artificial intelligence by Australian businesses, as companies wait to see the extent of mandatory ‘guardrails’. The tech industry is still waiting for policy decisions on proposed mandatory guardrails for AI in high-risk settings, despite a final round of Industry department consultations concluding…

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January 28, 2025

New chief scientist open to nuclear energy. Just not right now

Freshly minted chief scientist Tony Haymet won’t rule out nuclear energy as a power source to drive Australia’s participation in the global artificial intelligence boom but says right now the national focus should be on scaling renewables infrastructure for wind and solar. Professor Haymet said the fast-evolving worldwide market for AI products and services was…

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January 28, 2025

‘People have spoken’: Husic to stick with responsible AI rules

Rapid developments in AI technology, policy and regulation are complicating Australia’s attempts to put guardrails on the technology. But Industry minister Ed Husic says the government will stay the course on its domestic rules to overcome a local trust gap and encourage responsible uptake. The government is expected to announce a risk-based model for regulating…

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January 28, 2025

Oceanographer Tony Haymet appointed chief scientist

Marine scientist and entrepreneur Professor Tony Haymet has been appointed Australia’s next chief scientist, beginning his tenure on Tuesday with an openness to nuclear power and a message to move quickly on artificial intelligence. Professor Haymet’s willingness to explore nuclear power was quickly checked by Science minister Ed Husic, however, who poured cold water on…

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