The Federal government budget seems to be taking up a lot of people’s attention today. For you nerds out there who don’t pay attention to this stuff, but are vaguely interested in what the government is tinkering with in regards to technology related stuff, I’ve done a little roundup of what’s going on. Feel free to read the Budget documents yourself too – they’re all online.
Australian Interactive Games Fund
This fund has been cut in its entirety. It’s only $10m, but it seems like it will impact the Australian games industry – Kotaku has coverage of what the local games industry thinks of this decision.
Enhancing Online Safety for Children
I haven’t seen any media reports about this post-budget, but in the budget documents, it is mentioned in the section relating to the Department of Communications. It’s literally, “won’t somebody think of the children” personified. More info about it from the SMH.
Mobile Black Spot Programme
I’ve written about this before, pre-election. The government is giving a relatively paltry $100m in order to fill in mobile phone gaps around Australia. It’s still very vague and nothing has been decided upon since the discussion paper submissions closed on the 28th of Feb 2014. More “detail” on how this programme will work is on the Department of Communications website.
Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency
The TUSMA is responsible for making sure telcos don’t act like jerks in regards to landlines, payphones, disabled person access and other stuff that’s not profitable, but vital for our society. It’s been lumped into ACMA’s purview. The Australian has a small thing about it.
Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record System
The PCEHRS is supposed to be a massive project to get all Australian’s health records digitised and make those records available to patients so they have control over who sees what. It’s been pretty stagnant, with everyone thinking the Libs will shut it down as an example of Labor’s waste (much like the NBN), but funding for it has continued, despite there not really being a plan. Any info surrounding new plans are being held very close to the government’s chest, as Delimiter has found out via many refused FoI requests.
ICT Centre of Excellence (NICTA)
NICTA funding will fade away over the next few years, with the aim being that NICTA continues on as an industry supported body with no government funds. It’s a research centre dedicated to ICT stuff. Many IT related PhD students work there and a few companies have been born out of the projects undertaken at NICTA. ZDNet has info about NICTA’s future.
Science Cuts & Additions
Science funding in general seems to be weirdly lopsided, with the government taking from one hand ($420m from almost every science related entity), but giving with the other ($20b to the NHMRC for medial research). There’s also weird stuff tied into education funding that has a big impact on research and science, as that’s where most of the science related activity happens. Pro Bono Australia has a good roundup of science stuff in the budget.
Entrepreneurs’ Infrastructure Programme
There’s been a big shakeup in how startups and businesses looking to expand are assisted by government. Lots of smaller departments and initiatives have been lumped into a single entity called the Entrepreneurs’ Infrastructure Programme. Overall the amount of funding has reduced. The AFR has reactions from industry and StartupSmart has more details.
Bureau of Meteorology — supercomputer
A tiny thing, but the BoM is gonna get funding for a new supercomputer. Yay, computers.
NBN Co Funding
NBN Co wasn’t mentioned much in this budget as it’s not a new thing, but we do know that there is a $29.5b cap on what the government will spend on it. Any extra cash will need to come from private business. There’s been some significant lies told by Malcolm Turnbull on how much cheaper the MTM model is versus the all-fibre model – claiming $31.6bn of savings, when according to their own strategic review, it is actually $15bn. Delimiter has more on this.
Also discovered about the NBN is the fact the government will cease giving it money in 2017-2018. After that any infrastructure required is to be paid for by someone else that isn’t the government. What will likely happen is that all the low hanging fruit and juicy profit infrastructure will be built by 2018, then all the “too hard” stuff will be left over, unbuilt as the government isn’t paying for it and the private sector won’t find it profitable enough.
Overall, the budget doesn’t impact technology all that much. There’s massive cuts to health spending, huge changes to what people under 30 can receive as unemployment benefits and lots of weird, ideological based stuff like chaplains in government schools. That sort of activity will impact your life way more than the things in this article.
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