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A new report by Mandala, Unlocking the Productivity Dividend of Digital Government, shows that by modernising outdated legacy IT systems and shifting to cloud and AI-enabled platforms, Australia can unlock billions in productivity gains while strengthening cyber resilience and improving sustainability.

Anthony Albanese’s ballooning public service is “burning money” on outdated IT systems that threaten to cost taxpayers up to $13.5bn in savings, undermine the government’s uptake of ­artificial intelligence and expose Australians to cyber attacks and inferior services. After Jim Chalmers’ economic reform roundtable last month called for the public sector to lead Australia’s digital productivity gains, a report reveals the Australian Public Service has fallen behind the world and is plagued by cultural barriers between departments and agencies. Amid warnings the public service is being held back by antiquated IT systems and procurement rules not fit-for-purpose, the report forecasts that accelerating cloud adoption by five years could unlock $13.5bn in savings by 2035 – more than half of Labor’s $22.7bn Future Made in Australia program.

Big business including Atlassian and Cochlear are calling on the government to expand research and development tax incentives for large firms to address the staggering drop in investment and productivity since 2012. In a report commissioned by the Business Council of Australia and released on Sunday, the firms suggested broadening the R&D tax incentive for large businesses, additional tax incentives for collaboration and commercialisation of R&D, and simplifying administrative processes.

Assets designed to help fight climate change may soon risk losing access to insurance unless they’re adequately shielded from extreme weather events. Roughly 46% of Europe’s total renewable generation capacity will be at “critical risk” from the fallout of climate change unless owners do more to protect existing and planned assets, according to a report by Zurich Resilience Solutions, a unit of Zurich Insurance Group AG, and Mandala Partners. Energy storage and solar assets are particularly exposed, it said. “If we don’t see a continued and increased focus on building resilience, it will be very difficult for us — ...

Major superannuation funds could see returns from their American investments fall by nearly $3.5 billion over four years under a punitive tax regime that would target countries that the Trump administration deemed to have discriminated against businesses in the United States. The so-called “big beautiful bill” now at the centre of recriminations between US President Donald Trump and his one-time confidant Elon Musk contains provisions that would increase taxes on investors including the major retirement savings funds if passed unchanged.

People in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland are being hit with the highest out-of-pocket fees for private medical care in Australia, new data reveals. A report launched today, ‘Reducing out-of-pocket costs for Australian healthcare consumers’, shows the median out-of-pocket fee for a medical procedure in the private health system was $240 nationwide in 2023. However, in the ACT the median was $591. This is 146% higher than the national average. In NSW, the median out-of-pocket fee was $279, and in Queensland it was $258.