Good morning, we’ve got some tech news for you.
1. Sweeping changes to vaping
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is this week expected to deliver its recommendations to the government on how vaping laws should be changed to tackle rising vaping rates, particularly among young people. Per a report from The Guardian, the drug regulator’s sweeping changes will focus heavily on imports, specifically addressing bans that are in place but may be skirted. It’s to tackle the growing rise in young people picking up vaping despite not previously smoking.
2. Right to disconnect
Following an interim report by the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care last year that said Australians should have the right to ignore emails, calls and texts outside of working hours, Greens leader Adam Bandt has introduced a Bill that would make such a right law. Per a report from InnovationAus, the Fair Work Amendment (Right to Disconnect) Bill 2023 was moved in Parliament by Bandt on Monday in recognition of the changing nature of work, particularly the work-from-home shift prompted by the pandemic.
Switching off and disconnecting from work is vital for your health and work-life balance.
The Greens will fight to get the government to lock in this right as part of their plans to update the industrial relations system.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) March 20, 2023
3. iPhones and avoiding layoffs
We won’t know anything for sure about the iPhone 15 until it’s launched later this year, but we’re expecting big changes. One such change is that Apple’s Pro models may ditch physical buttons for touch-based buttons that will introduce a kind of “taptic” feedback. Now, a new render is backing up that claim, but at least it’s assuring us that we’ll still have dedicated mute controls. Reports also emerged overnight that Apple does not want to resort to layoffs, unlike Google, Microsoft, Meta (which thought 11,000 Meta staff layoffs were so nice that it did it twice), and now Amazon that it has put a hold on some major product releases, like a planned HomePod with in-built screen to allocate more resources to other projects.
4. A single place to report cyber incidents
The Productivity Commission has urged the government to give businesses a single cyber incident reporting portal to simplify the burden of a growing number of mandatory reporting obligations. Brought to our attention by iTnews, in its report, the commission said cyber incident reporting via a single interface would “reduce the administrative cost on businesses associated with the current plethora of reporting requirements to multiple regulators”. It suggested that single report be pushed out to the Australian Cyber Security Centre or other relevant government agency as required.
5. A grim report on climate change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s leading scientific body on climate change, put out its latest report on Monday. If you were looking for some feel-good news, this isn’t it. We need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by more than half over the next decade in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. The next few years represent a crucial crossroads, the international group of scientists said, as the choices we make could make or break our efforts to avert catastrophe. Read more about the report over here.
BONUS ITEM: Looking for a new job?
Bear lovers rejoice: The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is hiring “professional bear huggers.”https://t.co/4RFlLwapfm
— CNN (@CNN) March 19, 2023
See you tomorrow.