We speak with Michelle Fitzgerald, Melbourne's chief digital officer, to find out how the city aims to use technology to provide improved experiences for residents, visitors and businesses. [ + ]

Ricochet, an open source tool for helping human rights activists and whistleblowers pass on information anonymously, is ready for prime time after passing a security audit. [ + ]

A previously unidentified virus was to blame for an IT systems shutdown at WA parliament last week, with technicians pulling the plug as a precaution to conduct diagnostics. [ + ]

After publishing a damning report, the WA Auditor General has turned over an investigation into the handling of the WA Department of Health's centralised computing contract with Fujitsu to the state's anti-corruption authority. [ + ]

Australia has the opportunity to build a smart network to safeguard the country's most precious resource — water. [ + ]

In years to come, we will look at transactional processes, scratch our heads and ask why anybody would have bothered with such a restrictive construct. [ + ]

The Queensland government has allocated $12.5m to set up a whole-of-government cybersecurity unit to help agencies prepare for and defend against emerging threats. [ + ]

Gravitational waves have been a hot topic in science recently, and a new supercomputer at The University of Western Australia is anticipated to help further research in the area. [ + ]

The majority of Australian teachers agree that using technology to help teach saves them time and brings them closer to their students, but they are also concerned that technology in the classroom causes distractions. [ + ]

The University of Adelaide is deploying a HPC system based on Lenovo's System x NeXtScale platform to help support its thousands of research staff and students. [ + ]

The WA Department of Water is replacing its legacy IT water management system with a platform based on Microsoft software being delivered by NEC Australia. [ + ]

Angus Taylor's appointment to the Cities and Digital Transformation portfolio may be an opportunity to reinforce smart city agendas emerging as drivers for improvement of government services. [ + ]

University of Melbourne has secured a $9.1m loan from the government's Clean Energy Finance Corporation for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. [ + ]

By 2018, a third of digital government projects will treat any data as open data, according to Gartner. Research director Rick Howard outlines the steps required to move down this path. [ + ]

Fuji Xerox Australia has relocated its Canberra office to the Parliamentary Triangle as part of efforts to play a close role in the government's digital transformation. [ + ]