The NSW Government’s Defence Innovation Network (NSW DIN) is funding a world leading technology project for civilian and military intelligence, surveillance & reconnaissance (ISR) applications.
The $850,000 initiative is being funded by the NSW Government, through Investment NSW, and the Commonwealth’s Next Generation Technology Fund.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said the project was an example of critical cyber infrastructure that will lead to job creation opportunities.
“This will lead to greater collaboration between the NSW defence industry and industry experts to commercialise the next generation of cyber technologies for Defence,” Mr Ayres said.
“The project has a variety of software applications to deliver highly reliable data analysis for defence, government, business, emergency and health services.”
NSW DIN Director Professor Bradley Williams said the initiative exemplified the DIN’s drive to accelerate the commercialisation of new technologies by connecting NSW industry and academics within high-priority projects.
“This ground-breaking project will have significant implications for both technical and economic sustainability of cyber infrastructure across Australia.”
NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte, said the DIN was facilitating collaboration to provide world-class solutions for tomorrow’s problems.
“This innovative project will leverage untrusted and partially compromised distributed systems to provide timely and robust ISR solutions across civilian and military networks without propagating risks and vulnerabilities that would normally occur.”
NSW Defence Advocate Air Marshal (Ret) John Harvey AM PhD said the NSW DIN Strategic Investment Initiative is an excellent opportunity to connect defence and industry with the vast capabilities of NSW universities.
Further details about Investment NSW are available at www.investment.nsw.gov.au, and for Defence NSW at www.defence.nsw.gov.au.
Service NSW to assist in vaccine push
The Service NSW app is the latest tool to be used in the NSW Government’s push to rollout the COVID-19 vaccine as quickly and as safely as possible.
From today people aged 40-49 will be able to register their interest for the vaccine directly on the Service NSW app, with other age groups to follow when it is their turn.
People who register will be contacted to book via email when appointments become available.
These invitations can be targeted by location depending on booking availability and supply of the vaccine in their local area.
Those aged 50 and over should visit nsw.gov.au to book their AstraZeneca vaccine now.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Service NSW app is used by five million people across NSW.
“The Service NSW app has been a game changer during the pandemic and will now play an important part in our vaccine rollout,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“It will now be even easier to register your interest for the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Minister for Digital and Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said this is another example of the NSW Government using technology to strengthen our state’s response to the pandemic.
“In a pandemic you need to respond with speed and accuracy and the Service NSW technology will bring millions of customers a step closer to receiving the vaccine,” Mr Dominello said.
All Victorians must have access to JobSeeker if they need it during lockdown
The Greens are calling on the Government to ensure all workers impacted by the snap Victoria lock down have urgent access to the JobSeeker payment.
The Government ended JobKeeper much too early despite warnings of second and third waves,” Greens spokesperson on Family and Community Services Senator Rachel Siewert said.
We know that casual workers, those in hospitality and services roles are the ones that will lose a week’s wage going into lockdown.
Many people on low incomes in highly casualised sectors are already living from week to week and missing a week’s pay has a huge impact.
The Government needs to take responsibility and ensure that people who won’t be able to go to work this week and who won’t get their pay can call up Centrelink and be granted an emergency JobSeeker payment, with the waiting period waived, for the period of the lockdown.
There also needs to be support provided to small businesses.
It’s outrageous that those who can least afford it have to bear the brunt of the costs because the Federal Government has fundamentally messed up the vaccine rollout and failed to get quarantine facilities up to standard.
Emissions fall to lowest level on record
Today the Morrison Government released the December 2020 Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.
In the year to December 2020, emissions were 499.0 million tonnes – 5.0 per cent or 26.1 million tonnes lower than in 2019.
This is the lowest level on record and 20.1 per cent below 2005 levels (the baseline year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target).
When exports are excluded, domestic emissions are now 37.4 per cent below 2005 levels.
Emissions from electricity generation continued their long-term, structural decline in 2020, down 4.9 per cent or 8.7 million tonnes relative to 2019.
Fugitive emissions also fell 8.8 per cent or 4.8 million tonnes, with the ramp up of the Gorgon carbon capture and storage facility in Western Australia making a significant contribution. The Gorgon CCS facility will permanently store around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year at full rate, making it the largest, purely emissions reduction facility of its kind in the world.
COVID-related restrictions on transport activity reduced emissions from that sector by 12.1 per cent or 12 million tonnes. Land sector emissions were slightly higher over the year to December.
The Government’s strong management of the economic and health response to the pandemic saw the Australian economy grow by 3.1 per cent during the December quarter, while emissions fell 0.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis.
Reductions in electricity and fugitive emissions more than offset a small rise in transport emissions during the December quarter.
In the year to March 2021, emissions in the National Electricity Market fell 5.6 per cent.
The continuing structural decline in emissions from electricity is driven by Australia’s world-leading deployment of solar and wind. Since 2017, Australia has invested over $35 billion in renewables and in 2020 deployed new wind and solar PV at eight and a half times the global per capita average.
The production of exports for overseas markets generates 39.1 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. The value of Australia’s overseas exports has increased by around $110 billion since 2013, reflecting the Government’s strong economic management.
Despite upward pressure from growth in exports and industry, emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy continue to fall and are at their lowest levels in three decades.
The Government has a comprehensive suite of policies to meet its emissions reduction commitments, encourage innovation and back new and emerging low emissions technologies.
The Government has announced, as part of the 2021-22 Budget, a further $1.6 billion to bolster Australia’s position as a leader in low emissions technologies and to meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets, taking our total expected investment to more than $20 billion over the decade to 2030.
Investing in low emissions technologies will enable Australia’s continued success in meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets. Australia beat its 2020 target by 459 million tonnes and we are on track to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.
Over the last two years, the projected emissions reductions required to achieve that target have fallen by 639 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking all of Australia’s 14.7 million cars off the road for 15 years.
Between 2005 and 2019, the last year for which comparable data is available, Australia reduced emissions faster than many similar economies, including Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: December 2020 can be found here: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/…
In the year to December 2020, emissions were 499.0 million tonnes – 5.0 per cent or 26.1 million tonnes lower than in 2019.
This is the lowest level on record and 20.1 per cent below 2005 levels (the baseline year for our 2030 Paris Agreement target).
When exports are excluded, domestic emissions are now 37.4 per cent below 2005 levels.
Emissions from electricity generation continued their long-term, structural decline in 2020, down 4.9 per cent or 8.7 million tonnes relative to 2019.
Fugitive emissions also fell 8.8 per cent or 4.8 million tonnes, with the ramp up of the Gorgon carbon capture and storage facility in Western Australia making a significant contribution. The Gorgon CCS facility will permanently store around 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year at full rate, making it the largest, purely emissions reduction facility of its kind in the world.
COVID-related restrictions on transport activity reduced emissions from that sector by 12.1 per cent or 12 million tonnes. Land sector emissions were slightly higher over the year to December.
The Government’s strong management of the economic and health response to the pandemic saw the Australian economy grow by 3.1 per cent during the December quarter, while emissions fell 0.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted and weather normalised basis.
Reductions in electricity and fugitive emissions more than offset a small rise in transport emissions during the December quarter.
In the year to March 2021, emissions in the National Electricity Market fell 5.6 per cent.
The continuing structural decline in emissions from electricity is driven by Australia’s world-leading deployment of solar and wind. Since 2017, Australia has invested over $35 billion in renewables and in 2020 deployed new wind and solar PV at eight and a half times the global per capita average.
The production of exports for overseas markets generates 39.1 per cent of Australia’s total emissions. The value of Australia’s overseas exports has increased by around $110 billion since 2013, reflecting the Government’s strong economic management.
Despite upward pressure from growth in exports and industry, emissions per capita and the emissions intensity of the economy continue to fall and are at their lowest levels in three decades.
The Government has a comprehensive suite of policies to meet its emissions reduction commitments, encourage innovation and back new and emerging low emissions technologies.
The Government has announced, as part of the 2021-22 Budget, a further $1.6 billion to bolster Australia’s position as a leader in low emissions technologies and to meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets, taking our total expected investment to more than $20 billion over the decade to 2030.
Investing in low emissions technologies will enable Australia’s continued success in meeting and beating our emissions reduction targets. Australia beat its 2020 target by 459 million tonnes and we are on track to meet and beat our 2030 Paris target.
Over the last two years, the projected emissions reductions required to achieve that target have fallen by 639 million tonnes – the equivalent of taking all of Australia’s 14.7 million cars off the road for 15 years.
Between 2005 and 2019, the last year for which comparable data is available, Australia reduced emissions faster than many similar economies, including Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.
The Quarterly Update of Australia’s National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: December 2020 can be found here: https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/…
City lifeguard’s courageous service recognised with national award
When an 8-year-old girl was swept on her body board out of Newcastle’s Canoe Pool, onto the rocks and into the ocean during 14-foot dangerous swell in January, City of Newcastle lifeguard Mick Body sprang into action.
He moved quickly along the rock shelf and dived into the treacherous surf conditions, rescuing the young girl who was struggling to stay above the rough water. Mick, joined by another lifeguard (Luke Kelly), held onto her and navigated the large swell to return her to the safety of shore and her frantic family.
It is this display of courage, professionalism and experience that has earned the City of Newcastle Lifeguard an Australian Professional Ocean (APOLA) Lifeguard Association Meritorious Service Award, the highest accolade in the profession.
Mick, who has worked as a professional lifeguard for almost 20 years said he was honoured to receive the National Award and to be recognised for doing a job he loves and is passionate about.
“It was a surprise, but definitely an honour to be recognised with this award,” Mr Body said.
“During large swells waves engulf the Canoe Pool and then bounce off the side of the ocean baths creating a strong side wash which catches people by surprise. I’m pleased our rescue that day avoided an almost certain drowning.
“As lifeguards we have the best office in the world. Every day is new and that is exciting. The beauty of working on the beach is that we are ambassadors for our city and meet people from all over who come here to enjoy themselves.”
City of Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes praised Mick’s quick-thinking and lifesaving action.
“Our lifeguards provide an absolutely invaluable service to our community and regularly go beyond the call of duty to keep our community safe,” the Lord Mayor said.
“Without Mick’s bravery, advanced skills and knowledge of the beach, the outcome would have certainly been a tragic one.
“I’m proud that this incredible effort has been acknowledged on a national stage and I thank all of our lifeguards for their daily acts of kindness, bravery and courage.
“Each surf season City of Newcastle lifeguards save on average 100 lives and perform more than 15,000 preventative actions as more than one million people visit local beaches.
“Lifeguards are extremely proactive when it comes to taking preventative measures. This can include asking surfers to surf outside the flagged area to urging beach goers to swim between the red and yellow flags instead of near dangerous rips.
“When prevention fails, it can often take just split seconds for swimmers to find trouble and the same time for lifeguards to act.”
City of Newcastle has also been recognised by APOLA for continuing to deliver its Water Safety Education Program to local young people and the City’s multicultural community during COVID. The program is presented by City Newcastle’s lifeguards and teaches fundamental water safety skills and preventative measures.
The face-to-face program, which has run for 52 years, targets primary school students and works with the Multicultural Neighbourhood Centre and University of Newcastle Language Centre.
By developing an adapted COVID-safe program, City of Newcastle Lifeguards were still able to virtually reach 14,000 primary students in the Newcastle ensuring the community was able to receive vital information that may prevent drownings.
Safety upgrades on the way for Shortland local centre
A safer, more attractive local centre is on its way for Shortland, with City of Newcastle endorsing the Shortland Local Centre Public Domain and Traffic Plan at the Ordinary Council meeting this week.
The upgrade will improve safety on Sandgate Road with a new pedestrian refuge and reduced driver speeds via the installation of road cushions and implementation of a 40km/hr High Pedestrian Activity Area.
Heavy vehicle traffic will also be reduced in the area, with vehicles weighing over 10 tonnes being redirected to the Newcastle Inner City Bypass. Buses and heavy vehicles with business destinations within Shortland suburb will be unaffected.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said that pedestrian safety in Shortland is a key priority.
“During our earlier rounds of engagement with the community we heard that pedestrian safety at Sandgate Road was a significant concern,” Cr Nelmes said.
“These upgrades are designed to address the community’s concerns and also improve the experience for shoppers and visitors with new footpaths and street furniture also being delivered.”
Ward Four Councillor Jason Dunn affirmed the importance of these upgrades to the local community.
“It was pleasing to see so many community members have their say on the proposed changes, and I’m looking forward to seeing the upgrade be delivered as a result of the community’s feedback,” Councillor Dunn said.
Owner of Shortland’s My Community Pharmacy John Jones said the upgrade is fantastic for Shortland locals.
“It’s great to see Shortland being included in the upgrades being delivered across Newcastle,” Mr Jones said.
“The people of Shortland love supporting their local businesses so it’s a positive that it will be safer to get here with improved accessibility, making it a space we can all be really proud of.
Construction of the upgrades is scheduled to commence in the coming months.
The City has engaged a local artist to work with the community to develop a theme for a new mural installation. The mural project will be delivered in conjunction with construction and the subsequent opening of the upgraded local centre.
$24 million to fund innovative solutions from NSW small businesses
The NSW Government today launched a new initiative for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), which will receive $24 million in funding over its first two years.
The establishment of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was the first Priority Action recommended in the Turning Ideas into Jobs – Accelerating Research & Development in NSW Action Plan, launched by Premier Gladys Berejiklian on 25 January 2021.
“The Action Plan stressed the increasing need to be proactive in supporting and attracting new businesses, especially in future industries that will sustain economic growth, productivity and employment,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The SBIR program will provide competitive grants for SMEs to find and commercialise innovative solutions to NSW Government agencies for five well-defined problems”.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier Gabrielle Upton MP encouraged business to get involved.
“The program will tackle important challenges including assisting vision-impaired customers navigate the public transport network, increasing the resilience of regional and remote communications networks, quantify the number and extent of koalas in NSW, reduce contamination in wastewater and reducing PPE waste in the health system,” Ms Upton said.
“The SBIR program will not only support NSW SMEs to develop innovative solutions to government challenges, but the challenges have been specifically chosen to ensure that the successful SMEs can also sell their solutions to other customers in local and international markets.”
David Gonski AC, Chair of the Advisory Council of eminent leaders who guided the NSW Action Plan, welcomed the SBIR program launch.
“The impact of COVID-19 on economic growth and job creation makes the task to commercialise more R&D an urgent one,” Mr Gonski said.
“Rapidly translating ideas into new products and services will be integral to our recovery from the pandemic.”
The NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte said research and development was the key to delivering problem solving solutions.
“Like the Medical Devices Fund and Physical Sciences Fund, the SBIR program is an excellent example of the NSW Government’s commitment to leverage the capacity of SMEs’ NSW-based R&D to address the state’s most pressing problems and provide solutions which deliver a social, environmental, health or economic benefit,” Professor Durrant-Whyte said.
Further information including the guidelines and how to apply can be found here.
Progress on new Speedway racing ahead
Construction on the new Sydney International Speedway has passed the half way point and is on track to be operational by the start of the 2021 racing season.
Minister for Sport Natalie Ward and Minister for Transport Andrew Constance today inspected construction at the Eastern Creek site.
“This is an exciting and revolutionary addition to motorsport in Sydney which will bring in interstate and overseas competitors, crews and spectators, delivering a boost to our economy,” Mrs Ward said.
“Motorsport fans can look forward to more world-class motor racing in Western Sydney with the new speedway on track to be operational for the 2021 racing season.”
Mr Constance said the project was a win for the sport and for the local economy.
“The project is boosting investment with more than 325 workers onsite, 60 per cent of who are local to Greater Western Sydney. The project is also using the services of 58 local small to medium businesses, further spreading the benefits.”
Construction began in December last year and has included:
- Excavating 1 million tonnes of soil and rock at the site to support construction
- Constructing a 500m long reinforced retaining wall using almost a 1000 precast concrete panels and 40,000 tonnes of recycled sandstone from the WestConnex project
- Work on the construction of a 1,200,000 litre storm water retention tank. The tank’s capacity is the equivalent of 60 per cent of a standard Olympic-size swimming pool and is one of two water retention tanks being built for the project
- Construction of new dedicated car park for speedway competitors and an additional car park for dragway events also under construction.
The speedway circuit is also taking shape, while the grandstand, seating and corporate boxes will all be installed in the coming months.
Mrs Ward said investment in the new speedway comes on top of a $33 million upgrade of Sydney Motorsport Precinct which will enable the site to host some of the biggest motor racing events in Australia and provide a tourism and economic shot in the arm for Western Sydney.
“This is the first time in more than 20 years a Five Star speedway has been built in Australia with the last one being Perth Motorplex, which opened in 2000,” Mrs Ward said.
Greater Sydney Parklands is finalising the tender process to appoint the operator of the new speedway to prepare for the upcoming racing season.
The new speedway is expected to be operational by the start of the Speedway season in late September following the decommissioning of the previous speedway at Clyde, which was on land required to stable new metro trains for the mega Sydney Metro West project.
Call to action for NSW defence businesses
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) are being encouraged to harness their future defence opportunities in NSW, with the launch of Adroita’s Partnering for Success white paper today at LAND FORCES 2021, the International Land Defence Exposition in Brisbane.
Veteran-owned defence and engineering consultancy, Adroita, is one of twenty-four NSW companies showcasing their products and services at the NSW stand. The launch of their Partnering for Success paper reinforces the need for companies to embrace change, leverage global markets and secure Defence opportunities for growth in NSW.
Minister for Jobs, Investment, Tourism and Western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, said the expo was an excellent opportunity for SMEs to connect with Government and senior partners in the defence industry.
“We want to bring together the Australian Defence Primes, SMEs and researchers to grow and strengthen our defence industry at every level and in doing so generate jobs for NSW,” Mr Ayres said.
Partnering for Success outlines the need for businesses to secure opportunities in Defence’s priority areas, such as shipbuilding, radar capability, information warfare, surveillance and intelligence, small arms, aerospace maintenance and complex systems integration.
Adroita CEO Sarah Pavillard said their core purpose was engineering success for sovereign capability.
“SMEs are the engine room of the Australian and the NSW economy, and there is much latent potential sitting in industry right now that is applicable to Defence – it just needs to be unlocked, and that can only occur through the right partnerships.”
Mr Ayres said the Government, through Investment NSW, was also providing $1 million to the Defence Innovation Network to seed collaborative projects between Defence Innovation Network universities and NSW SMEs that will lead to greater commercialisation.
LAND FORCES 2021 co-exhibitor DroneShield has previously received seed funding that supported their development of optical drone detection using deep learning and convolutional neural networks with the University of Technology Sydney.
DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik said the project used recent improvements in computer vision, image processing and deep learning to develop an artificial intelligence based real-time optical drone detection system.
“The developed technology has been integrated into DroneShield’s counter-drone solutions and deployed at several high-profile customer sites around the world to detect, identify and track drones up to several kilometres away with the optical/thermal sensors.”
Further details about Investment NSW are available at www.investment.nsw.gov.au, and for Defence NSW at www.defence.nsw.gov.au.