Bright Future for NSW

Ryde MP Victor Dominello  said at a North Sydney Innovation Network (NSIN) event on Tuesday 29^th of May that other states are looking to NSW for leadership in innovation and technology.

Mr Dominello has high hopes for the Premier State and strongly believes that it could become a leader and an example for the country. The Ryde MP continued by expressing his opinion on the subject and said that ‘By the time they see what we’re about to do, they’ll be eating our dust. That’s how good it’s going to get.’

Mr Dominello previewed some of the technology hitting NSW soon.

One new technology that should be released across NSW by 2019 and that Mr Dominello believes will be in everyone’s hands in the next five to ten years is the digital driver’s licence. Mr Dominello said that this technology has the potential to eradicate losable plastic cards and the time and stress of getting them replaced: ‘You physically can’t lose your ID’.

More importantly, this upcoming piece of technology will make it much harder to create and get hold of fake IDs that are far too common in our society.

Other initiatives such as the app FuelCheck, that has the potential to save the average person $100 a year according to Mr Dominello, will be aiming at reducing costs for the average person. This app that compares the different local petrol stations’ prices on a map is promoting fair-trading and will force petrol stations to share their price or to face fines.

The MP continued by saying that feedback to public services could take up to 2 years to be received – this amount of time urgently needed to be reduced. He then presented a potential solution to this issue. The new app DOMO allows people to ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ different projects as they are happening. As an example, Mr Dominello showed the NSW Service CTP Green Slip Refund’s progress on the app, which had received 173,000 responses and a 96% approval rate.

‘I want to check on a fifteen-minute basis whether it’s up or down.’ He said.

Efficiency and speed are Mr Dominello’s priorities. He said Service NSW is an example: ‘Going to the RTA takes half a day, going to Service NSW means pressing a button.’

More Accessible and Accurate Data

An audience attendee said she had not known her child’s birthday was wrong on Medicare for 12 years, until recently, to which Mr Dominello said that the move toward digital transformation in government will clean up more of these discrepancies.

He said he will have an eplanning platform that makes developments and demographics more transparent by this time next year: ‘A heat map of the herd’ in other words.

Mr Dominello’s more audacious goal is to measure data viscosity: ‘We need to start measuring the data between governments like blood flow in a human body.’

‘Dealing with government is like dealing with a giant elephant. Make it transparent. A data marketplace. Governments have to share data.’

Mr Dominello said the ‘Jetson era’ has already started, but: ‘we need to lift our game.’

He said the biggest issues facing his ideas for the future of technology is privacy and giving people confidence in new technologies. He knows that it’s hard to get people to change, but: ‘if you like paper, do origami.’

ANSTO’s Graduate Institute

Following Mr Dominello was Dr Tim Boyle from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Lucas Heights, South Sydney.

ANSTO is home to Australia’s only nuclear reactor, the Opal Reactor.

Dr Boyle said: ‘It’s the most productive multi-research reactor in the world. At the moment it’s at capacity to supply about 35% of the world’s nuclear medicine. In domestic terms, you or the person next to you will benefit from nuclear medicine produced in this reactor.’

Despite the emphasis on technology, Dr Boyle said: “People are the backbone.”

He proposed an innovation precinct including a graduate institute on site at Lucas Heights for “smart kids with big ideas unhindered.”

South Sydney houses 16% of the NSW population and 10% of jobs. Dr Boyle said there are economic benefits to the precinct.

He said there aren’t enough jobs to support the population growth in the area, and the innovation precinct and the graduate institute can make a positive change to the area by giving students skills in entrepreneurship and innovation.

Missed the event? Have a look at the recording of the event on our Facebook page

Author

Eva Baxter is a UTS student studying journalism and creative writing. She makes a living as a swim instructor. Her ultimate fantasy is to be on the reality show Survivor and outwit, outlast, outplay her way to winning the title of Sole Survivor.