Westmead Health Precinct is Australia’s largest health and biomedical research precinct and a thriving hub of scientific collaboration and professional cross-fertilisation in Western Sydney – with relationships criss-crossing between four hospitals, two universities, two medical research institutes, a number of allied health centres, and NSW’s largest pathology service. Home to breakthrough research projects in genetics, …read more

Billed as Australia’s first-of-its-kind generative AI-powered pet care assistant, the PetAI chatbot will answer client questions about a range of pets including cats, dogs, reptiles, birds, chickens, small animals, and fish. Developed by giant pet-care retailer Petbarn in collaboration with Microsoft and Insight Enterprises, PetAI has built-in guardrails and refers more esoteric or difficult questions …read more

If a high-school student in NSW asked the education department’s new generative AI tool to write an essay on Shakespeare’s use of comedy, it would respond like a teacher and encourage the student to do the thinking.  “Let’s work through that problem,” the tool might say, “who are the characters, what are the themes, how …read more

Co-founder of telehealth platform Updoc Dylan Coyne says he and his business partner Clifton Hodgkinson have made a point of hiring “really smart, bright, intelligent people” and giving them a large measure of autonomy. “We empower them,” Coyne says. “They can make decisions. They can work collaboratively with others. They can really do what they …read more

Australian companies are fostering internal “cultural resilience” with extensive training, by testing staff on potential outage scenarios and by using past incidents as learning opportunities. Systemic weaknesses in digital platforms have been exposed by massive disruptions in recent years and the government, clients, consumers and shareholders now expect corporate Australia to take action to repel, reduce and …read more

Australian finance sector organisations will soon have to demonstrate oversight of their service providers’ risk management practices, providing a level of transparency now considered critical in an increasingly technologically complex and digitally interconnected world. Coming into force on July 1, 2025, APRA’s CPS 230 rule will make finance sector companies responsible for their own operational resilience …read more

A geophysicist who worked for decades for a large international firm, Richard Plumb had no superannuation in Australia. Now 65, Plumb and his wife Marisa, a couple of years older and a former teacher’s assistant, were concerned the private company pension offered by his international employer would be considered foreign income and attract tax in Australia. So, …read more

Quantity surveyor Ian Jackson, now 71 and “pretty well retired”, sought expert financial planning advice in 2007, when he was a director of a professional surveying/consulting firm and earning a share of company profits. Initially, Greg Barter, now director and principal financial adviser at Allied Wealth, suggested various strategies to maximise Jackson’s funds, including arranging super …read more