National Innovation and Science Agenda

Commonwealth agencies who cut corners on procurement rules to ‘make life easier for themselves’ will face scrutiny in a new inquiry.

An entrepreneurs’ program run by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources has been critiqued by the auditor-general for its procurement standards.

The ideas boom could have done with more evidence, says the auditor general. “A number of important matters were not addressed in the advice to government” in the design of the National Innovation and Science Agenda.

The yearly round-up of innovative activities promoting new ways of working in the Australian Public Service shows the momentum behind the quest for new approaches to public service continued to build momentum in Canberra over 2016.

Procurement should be a marketplace, says the federal minister. The NSW government, National Disability Insurance Agency and now the Digital Transformation Office are all pursuing the digital marketplace concept.

Malcolm Turnbull has amplified advice to the government on his “ideas boom”, appointing leading entrepreneurs and business chiefs from Google, Atlassian and Seek to a new Innovation and Science Australia statutory body.