{"id":2948,"date":"2014-05-14T14:48:04","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T04:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/?p=2948"},"modified":"2017-03-06T20:14:28","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T10:14:28","slug":"federal-government-budget-impacts-tech-related-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reckoner.com.au\/features\/federal-government-budget-impacts-tech-related-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Relevant To My Interests: How Budget 2014 Impacts Australian Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/a><\/p>\n This fund has been cut in its entirety. It’s only $10m, but it seems like it will impact the Australian games industry –\u00a0Kotaku has coverage<\/a> of what the local games industry thinks of this decision.<\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n The TUSMA<\/a> 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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\n NICTA<\/a> 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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019 Infrastructure Programme. Overall the amount of funding has reduced. The AFR has reactions from industry<\/a> and StartupSmart<\/a> has more details.<\/p>\n A tiny thing, but the BoM is gonna get funding for a new supercomputer<\/a>. Yay, computers.<\/p>\n 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.<\/a><\/p>\nAustralian Interactive Games Fund<\/h3>\n
Enhancing Online Safety for Children<\/h3>\n
Mobile Black Spot Programme<\/h3>\n
Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency<\/h3>\n
Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record System<\/h3>\n
ICT Centre of Excellence (NICTA)<\/h3>\n
Science Cuts & Additions<\/h3>\n
Entrepreneurs\u2019 Infrastructure Programme<\/h3>\n
Bureau of Meteorology \u2014 supercomputer<\/h3>\n
NBN Co Funding<\/h3>\n