Their tech slashed legal costs by 80pc. Why isn't the government using it?

Detailed summary

Ms Rees and Mr Clarke could have sat pretty and retired early, but they have a mission.

Joanne Rees and Bruce Clarke could have sat pretty and retired early as experienced lawyers running a local firm with about 80 staff.

Instead, they have taken out loans and put more than five years of blood, sweat and tears into a tech platform.

It's all because they believe their platform, AllyOne, launched in 2023, can make working lives easier and save money for the taxpayer.

"Everybody nods their head and agrees, but I think a lot of people don't understand that some of the technology being developed in Canberra is world-beating," Mr Clarke said.

"Isn't it time that the federal government developed a viable project for Australian innovation?"

The government has plenty of reasons to look at their cost-cutting project platform, between a push to contract local businesses, and evidence that cost blowouts are fuelling inflation.

But the interest from federal agencies in AllyOne - whose team is based at Griffith - has fallen behind the private sector.

"We set up Allygroup in the early 2000s," Mr Clarke said. "Both of us had long careers as litigation lawyers, and we also had a stint outside in advisory practices.

"We were doing a lot more advisory work in the beginning, for the New South Wales government, the Queensland government, the federal government.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.