Lake Macquarie council powers up mobility scooter test drives for seniors

  By Paul Hemsley The issue of safely managing the growing numbers of people using personal mobility scooters to get around town has been a longstanding concern for local governments, however Lake Macquarie City Council near the New South Wales port of Newcastle has hit upon an idea it hopes will make uptake of the […]

Australian councils share disaster smarts with United States

By Professor Edward Blakely* The United States has dealt with more disasters in the last four years than any period in nearly a century. This path of destruction has been underlined by the numerous floods, tornadoes, cyclones and other man-made disasters like the horrible fertiliser plant explosion in Texas. While these disasters make the headlines, […]

Ditching ‘mega-stadia’ in favour of local sport venues

[Editor’s note: this piece was written prior to Australia’s Ashes victory] By Simon Sharwood* Australia’s men’s cricket team is a joke [they’re not really a joke as they won the Ashes]. The Wallabies aren’t much better and our Olympians flopped. But this can all be fixed if Australia’s three tiers of government change the way […]

NSW hires Impregilo-Salini to build “skytrain” in North West Rail Link

By Paul Hemsley The New South Wales government has awarded a major contract to two Italian companies to build the so-called ‘skytrain’ section of the long-awaited $8.3 billion North West Rail Link. The contract valued at $340 million has been awarded to the Impregilo-Salini joint venture to construct the elevated railway line that runs at […]

Canberra seeks industry know-how for light rail procurement

By Paul Hemsley Canberra’s long awaited light rail project is gaining momentum as the Capital Metro Agency has commenced a search for technical advisers to guide the project towards its procurement phase in 2015. These technical advisers will be expected to have expertise in transport planning, engineering design, light rail operations, environmental assessment, urban design, […]

Cash-strapped Central Darling Shire Council facing suspension

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales government has moved swiftly to use its new authority to bring badly struggling local governments in the state to book through issuing a notice of suspension under Early Intervention powers. The state’s Local Government Minister Don Page on Tuesday hit Central Darling Shire Council with […]

Bids in to run Sydney’s $8.3bn North West Rail Link

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The long-awaited $8.3 billion North West Rail Link in Sydney is finally showing signs of leaving the station after the New South Wales government formally received proposals from the two consortia competing to run the badly needed new line. Scheduled to open in in 2019, the new line is […]

NSW government set to refresh tech advisory and buying panels

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales government is on the hunt for a new technology industry and procurement experts for the two key advisory panels it uses to help set overall strategy for public sector agencies. Minister of Finance and Services, Andrew Constance, issued the formal invitation this week as the […]

NSW requires government data to be ‘open by default’

By Paul Hemsley The New South Wales government has revealed its first Open Data Policy and will require all agencies set their online data policy as “open by default”. As part of the government’s ICT Implementation Strategy Plan, the Policy announced at an Open Data Forum in Sydney this week will require state agencies to […]

Fines on hold after NSW pool registration website takes a dive

By Julian Bajkowski The New South Wales government has instructed the state’s councils to hold off issuing fines to backyard pool owners that fail to register on the new compulsory Swimming Pool Register after a last minute deluge of online traffic put the regulatory website underwater. Pool owners in the state had been given until […]

New Tax app launched in frustration

By Julian Bajkowski A long running push by Australia’s independent software community to spur the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) into improving and adding new features to the revenue agency’s eTax lodgement interface has just taken a bold new twist. Plucky mobile developer Wave Digital claims it has given up waiting for the taxman and launched […]

City of Sydney demands Trigeneration rules be relaxed

By Julian Bajkowski The City of Sydney is again ramping up its promotion of trigeneration as a viable alternative means of producing energy in the heart of the city. Having parked a wider electricity overhaul critics claimed would cost up to $5 billion, the CBD council is now pushing the New South Wales Parliament to […]

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