DEFENCE is seeking applications from the cyber community across Australia to develop cyber solutions of high relevance to the country's national security.

Applications close August 15.

Cyber is a priority theme of the Next Generation Technologies Fund, aimed at realising the potential game changing cyber capabilities afforded by research and development in Australia. Defence recognises the need to respond to this technology opportunity, and that technological advances in the cyber domain are likely to lead to the introduction of new capabilities in our region.

Defence is seeking to leverage the vibrant cyber science, technology and innovation capability across Australia to develop technology solutions of high relevance to the country's national security.

Through partnerships with Data61, academia and industry, Defence aims to understand the potential of cyber technologies, create prototype systems, and demonstrate the practical application of systems to Defence problems.

One of the goals of cyber technologies research is to inform Defence of the potential benefits and practical limitations of cyber technologies through studies and demonstrator systems within a three to five-year timeframe.

DST is seeking submissions from academia, and other research agencies, detailing how they propose to contribute to research in the following areas:

• Trustworthy Machine Learning
• Symbolic Execution for Rapid Threat Analysis
• Formal verification of Network Control Protocols
• Data Security and Privacy of Inference Models
• Detecting and Analysing Vulnerabilities in Concurrent Software
• Resilient Cyber Systems
• Depicting human vulnerabilities towards cyber threats via trust analytics
• Privacy-Preserving distributed Edge Computing
• Policy-Defined Networking
• SDN Data Plane Security and extensions to Software Defined Clouds
• Formal Mathematical Modelling Environment
• FPGA Security
• Assisted System Decomposition for Vulnerability Assessment
• Cyber-Enabled Information Warfare

Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Alignment to Defence strategy and the project priorities articulated in this document
• Future science criticality
• Collaboration depth (e.g. Collaboration with DST staff, Data61 staff, other universities, an industry partner, etc.)
• Delivery of outcomes (e.g. the ability of the proposal to deliver the agreed outcomes and milestones).
• Game changing potential to Defence

For more informaiton visit the Next Generation Technologies Fund - Cyber page.

ends

A $4 MILLION joint funding program aimed at growing South Australia's forest and forest products industry is officially open for applications. ​

Federal Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Senator Anne Ruston and South Australian Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development Tim Whetstone have today released guidelines for the Mount Gambier National Institute for Forest Products Innovation fund.

Researchers with projects to grow Australia's forest and forest products industry are encouraged to apply for funding between $50,000 and $500,000.

Minister Ruston is encouraging innovative applications to continue growing the plantation forest and forest products industry.

"The National Institute for Forest Products Innovation fund is aimed to seize upon opportunities to harness the potential of our forestry assets, and maximise the contribution of the industry to our regional and national economies," said Minister Ruston.

"The fact that one of the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation hubs is located in Mount Gambier demonstrates the importance of South Australia and the Green Triangle to Australia's forest and forest products industry."

Minister Whetstone said the fund will provide important opportunities to boost research and development in the forest and forest products industry.

"The forest and forest products industry is a significant contributor to the state's economy and an important employer in our regions. The industry in South Australia generates over $2 billion in revenue annually," said Minister Whetstone.

"This research funding will play an important role in exploring and facilitating innovation in areas such as forest management, timber processing, wood fibre recovery and value adding, advanced manufacturing and the bio-economy.

"Priority areas for funding in the plantation forest and forest products industry include the development of new products, innovative, safe and efficient workplaces, and precision management; as well as tree growing, and robotics, automation and artificial intelligence."

Applications for the National Institute for Forest Products Innovation fund close on September 7, 2018. For more information and funding guidelines visit www.nifpi.org.au.

ends

ASIC has approved the Australian Banking Association’s (ABA’s) new Banking Code of Practice (the Code).

ASIC’s approval of the Code follows extensive engagement with the ABA, following a comprehensive independent review and extensive stakeholder consultation. The ABA made additional significant changes to the Code in order to satisfy ASIC that it met our criteria for approval.

This is the first comprehensive broad-based industry code ASIC has approved under its relevant powers.

The Code will commence operation from 1 July 2019.

SIGNIFICANT NEW PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The new Code provides for improved protections for small business borrowers and expands the reach and impact of legal protections against unfair contract terms.

For small businesses who borrow up to $3 million, the Code provides that lending contracts should not contain a range of potentially unfair and one-sided terms. Unfair contract terms protections in the law apply to businesses who borrow up to $1 million.

At its current setting of applying to small businesses who borrow up to $3 million, the Code will cover the considerable majority – between 92-97 percent – of businesses in Australia. 

To ensure the settings in the Code provide a high level of coverage of the small business sector, ASIC’s approval is conditional on an independent review of the definition of small business within 18 months of the Code’s commencement. This targeted review will test the adequacy and application of the Code’s small business coverage in practice, and will occur well before the Code’s comprehensive review, due three years after its commencement.

At the same time, ASIC will collect quarterly data from banks and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority to monitor the extent of the Code’s coverage of small business. ASIC will ensure that this data is made public every six months. This will provide the public with ongoing transparency about the coverage of the Code.

EXPANDED PROTECTION FOR CONSUMERS

The Code has built on and enhanced the existing protections for consumers in the 2013 Code.

The new Code includes:

• provisions for inclusive and accessible banking, including for vulnerable customers, customers on low incomes and Indigenous customers;

• protections relating to the sale of consumer credit insurance (CCI) including a deferred sales period of four days for CCI for credit cards and personal loans sold in branches and over the phone;

• protections for guarantors of loans, for instance, giving prospective guarantors generally three days to consider information about a guarantee and requiring banks to only enforce a guarantee once they have taken action against the borrower;

• rules requiring credit card customers to receive reminders about balance transfer promotional periods ending, as well as more consistent treatment about how repayments are applied; and

• enhanced processes for assisting customers in financial difficulty and processes for resolving complaints.

MONITORING AND ENFORCEABILITY

All ABA member banks will be required to subscribe to the Code as a condition of their ABA membership and the relevant protections in the Code will form part of the banks’ contractual relationships with their banking customers.

The Code will be administered and enforced by an independent monitoring body, the Banking Code Compliance Committee (BCCC). Any person will be able to report a breach of the Code to the BCCC, and consumers and small businesses with disputes about the Code protections will be able to have those disputes heard by the new Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

ASIC notes the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry may make findings relevant to the Code. ASIC may review its approval of the Code in light of the Royal Commission findings.

BACKGROUND

ASIC has provided guidance on its approach to approving codes, including how to obtain and retain approval in Regulatory Guide 183 Approval of financial services sector codes of conduct (RG 183).

 In approving the Code, ASIC considered that:

• the rules in the Code are binding on the ABA’s members and form part of the contracts between banks and their customers;

• the Code was developed and reviewed in a transparent way, which involved significant consultation with relevant stakeholders including consumer and small business groups; and

• the Code is supported by effective administration and compliance mechanisms. The BCCC will have oversight on banks’ Code compliance, tools to require banks’ cooperation with their monitoring and investigations, and a range of sanctions for non-compliance with Code provisions.

www.asic.gov.au

ends

THE Australian Retailers Association (ARA) believes June trade figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) represent a fair trade for the end of financial year, with a 2.87 percent total growth year-on-year.

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the ARA, said this positive growth is mostly due to the strong trade in Clothing, footwear and personal accessories and Food retailing.

“Winter finally hit in June as we saw the Clothing, footwear and personal accessories category grow by 5.26 percent year-on-year,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“Food retailing also saw a yummy result, growing 4.31 percent in June with supermarkets making a tasty comeback by having their strongest growth since June last year.”

With the new financial year in mind, consumers increased their spend in the Specialised food (6.05%) and Liquor (4.72%) sub-categories, which showed solid growth for the month.

Department stores (1.77%) saw a second-consecutive monthly rise in year-on-year sales, while weakness in the Household goods category (0.60%) dragged down the overall result for the industry.

“We have seen the housing market come off the boil of late in several states, which explains the flat results for Hardware and building and more significantly, Furniture, which was down by 2.55 percent,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“People don’t renovate when the housing market is down.”

Across the country, Victoria (5.77%) and the Australian Capital Territory (4.30%) showed the strongest growth in June, closely followed by Tasmania (3.87%) and New South Wales (3.05%). South Australia (2.53%) and Northern Territory (2.39%) remained steady, while Queensland (0.62%) and Western Australia (-0.46%) remained flat.

June saw the key retail categories posting healthy results, which is linked to the business confidence increase Roy Morgan has reported for the month.

“Business confidence often falls after the Federal Budget; however, this increase shows greater strength in the market, giving retailers much-needed assurance to invest in their businesses and execute product strategies,” Mr Zimmerman said.

“We believe this would grow further with the Federal Government’s company tax cuts coming into play again in the Senate in a few weeks’ time.”

Monthly retail growth (May 2018 – June 2018 seasonally adjusted) 

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (1.71%), Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (0.86%), Household goods retailing (0.45%), Food retailing (0.39%), Other retailing (0%) and Department stores (-1.23%).

Australian Capital Territory (1.24%), Victoria (1.11%), Tasmania (0.91%), New South Wales (0.42%), Western Australia (0.22%), South Australia (-0.04%), Queensland (-0.33%) and Northern Territory (2.58%).

Total sales (0.41%).

Year-on-year retail growth (June 2017 – June 2018 seasonally adjusted)

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (5.26%), Food retailing (4.31%), Cafés, restaurants and takeaway food services (2.36%), Department stores (1.77%), Other retailing (1.32%) and Household goods retailing (0.60%).

Victoria (5.77%), Australian Capital Territory (4.30%), Tasmania (3.87%), New South Wales (3.05%), South Australia (2.53%), Northern Territory (2.39%), Queensland (0.62%) and Western Australia (-0.46%).

Total sales (2.87%).

About the Australian Retailers Association:

Founded in 1903, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is Australia’s largest retail association, representing the country’s $310 billion sector, which employs more than 1.2 million people. As Australia’s leading retail peak industry body, the ARA is a strong pro-active advocate for Australian retail and works to ensure retail success by informing, protecting, advocating, educating and saving money for its 7,500 independent and national retail members throughout Australia. For more information, visit www.retail.org.au or call 1300 368 041.

ends