How We Think

It’s a rare employer who supports their newly admitted solicitor to take a sabbatical overseas— to explore new professional opportunities, work on their own business, and return with fresh insights and renewed purpose. But that’s exactly what Bobbi Campbell and the team at Synergy Law did for me.

Not only is the Commonwealth Government a big spender, but it has an almost incalculable number of suppliers and stakeholders across a diverse range of activities – from purchasing submarines and warships for the ADF, art for the National Gallery and underwriting massive infrastructure projects. The list could go on and on – considering the Federal Government awards about 70,000 contracts annually, valued at between $50 billion to $70 billion.

Back in the mists of time, 2007 to be precise, the Commonwealth Ombudsman issued an incredibly useful Fact Sheet – Ten Principles for Good Administration. The Ombudsman’s ‘Ten Commandments’ contain evergreen principles about good administration that are as useful today, if not more so. And that’s not because of the advent of AI and automated decision-making. These Ten Commandments not only underpin good decision-making, but they are also key ‘principles’ that govern any ‘rules’ that are set by humans – and especially if there is ever a ‘machine in the loop.’

AI bots are all the craze these days. So, jumping on the trend, I decided to create my own. I started with good intentions – to build a bot that would analyse event planning and provide a series of recommendations based on the Australian Government’s Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability (Good Practice Guidelines). The goal? To provide practical advice on engaging with people with a disability in an inclusive, respectful and appropriate way.

Robert DeNiro, who recently starred in a limited-edition Netflix series ‘Zero Day.’ DeNiro played the ageing, one-term ex-American President, recruited by the (fictional) sitting President to track down conspirators responsible for the so-called ‘Zero Day’ cyberattack that disabled every IT system in America for exactly one minute.

The Regional Mobilisation Capability and Capability Study (RMCCS) is an ongoing project Synergy is undertaking within Defence. The intent of the work is to ground-truth assumptions formulated in mobilisation planning activities by assessing the capability and capacity of select regions of Northern Australia to support sustained mobilisation demand.