Professor Yiannis Ventikos
Dean, faculty of engineering at Monash University

As ​the federal budget​ approaches, the National Defence Strategy sets a clear direction around greater self-reliance. The opportunity now is to support a comprehensive ecosystem that brings together the research and development needed to integrate critical technologies for sovereign capability, alongside the training required to address the significant skills and workforce gaps in engineering. Universities play a central role in delivering both.​

Professor Dana Kulić
Director of Monash Robotics

Productivity has become a focus of this federal budget, yet despite Australia’s National Robotics Strategy recognising robotics and AI as critical to economic growth, they are still not being treated as core economic infrastructure.

Internationally, robotics is seen as a strategic capability underpinning productivity gains across sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and infrastructure. Australia risks falling behind if investment and policy settings don’t keep pace.

One of the key gaps is in translating robotics into real-world use. While the underlying technology is advancing rapidly, deploying robots in complex environments, such as hospital wards or construction sites, remains difficult because systems need to operate safely and reliably alongside people, under changing conditions.

In Australia, this challenge is amplified by the structure of the economy. Most companies are small and medium-sized enterprises, which typically don’t have the capital or in-house expertise to deploy and manage complex robotic systems.

That means robotics strategies that work internationally in large companies don’t translate directly to the Australian context. If productivity is the goal, policy needs to support approaches that lower the barriers to adoption for companies, making robotic systems easier to integrate, adapt, manage and use without requiring specialised robotics expertise.

Daniel Garcia
Vice president and general manager of Kaseya APAC

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the lifeblood of the Australian economy. SMBs expect more than just the anticipated cost-of-living relief or modest energy rebates. The focus for many SMBs has shifted towards long-term operational efficiency and the ability to serve customers profitably within a more streamlined business model.

Current data suggests that cyber incidents can have a significant impact on productivity, with roughly 40 per cent of SMBs losing a full day of operations. A single day of zero productivity can be the catastrophic difference between continued survival and permanent closure. In a tightening market, bridging the gap between basic defence and proactive security is an increasingly important priority for business owners. Collaborative support that helps SMBs harden their security stacks can play a vital role in maintaining broader economic stability.

Additionally, as the industry explores the productivity potential of AI, establishing clear ethical frameworks and training resources will be key to addressing the current trust gap and encouraging wider adoption.

Providing a stable environment with clear incentives for digital investment allows SMBs to better automate their workflows and meet the evolving expectations of the modern business landscape.

Cyber Daily will be waiting for the budget to drop this evening and will provide a special report on what Chalmers will be delivering in terms of cyber resilience as soon as we can.