Award Programs

The Telstra Best of Business Awards were created to give small and medium-sized businesses a platform to celebrate achievements and stories with their peers, and opportunities to learn from Australia’s best business minds. The goal of these awards is to recognise and reward businesses moving Australia forward and inspiring the next generation through their ingenuity and resilience. The program is designed to celebrate the success stories, diversity and brilliance of Australia's small and medium-sized businesses.

There are seven categories in the awards:

• Accelerating Women
• Building Communities
• Championing Health
• Embracing Innovation
• Indigenous Excellence
• Outstanding Growth
• Promoting Sustainability

The HESTA Excellence Awards recognise exceptional achievements in a range of settings across aged care, allied health, community services and disability services.

Employers, colleagues, and patients from the aged care, allied health, community services and disability services sectors can nominate or be nominated for the Individual Leadership or Team Excellence categories.

The two categories will each have four winners, recognising excellence in the respective four health and community service sectors.

The eight winners will each receive $7500 for personal or professional development or further development of processes or services in the workplace.

The Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Awards recognise contributions by dedicated individuals,
or teams, who have shared their vision and knowledge with others to apply technology for the
benefit of Australia, and beyond.

The selection criteria for the Clunies Ross Technology Innovation Awards are:

1. A significant contribution to the advancement of industry and/or the community and/or the environment through the application of science, technology and engineering for the economic, social and/or environmental benefit of Australia.
2. Evidence of outcomes and impacts of the technology-based innovation in Australia.
3. Promotion of innovators and contribution to community awareness of technology-based innovation and evidence of mentoring the next generation of technology innovators.

The Resilient Australia Awards celebrate and promote initiatives that build whole of community resilience to disasters and emergencies around Australia as well as capture and share examples of resilience in action.

The awards recognise collaboration and innovative thinking across a broad range of sectors and initiatives that strengthen disaster resilience with communities, institutions, and the private sector. Innovative models and approaches that create sustainable change are highly regarded.

The awards endorse a wide range of initiatives; with past projects centred around risk assessment and mitigation, planning and preparation, and response and recovery.

Submissions for the 2024 awards program must relate to projects or initiatives that commenced after 1 January 2022 or demonstrate significant outcomes or enhancements since 1 January 2022. 

The Resilient Australia Awards is proudly sponsored by the Australian Government in partnership with states and territories and managed by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR).

The Awards recognise the achievements of Australian organisations that make significant contributions to the employment of veterans and partners, as well as celebrating the achievements of individual veteran and partner employees and entrepreneurs.

Categories for Individuals:

• Veteran Employee of the Year
• Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year
• Partner Employee of the Year
• Partner Entrepreneur of the Year
• Outstanding Contribution to Veteran and/or Partner Employment

Categories for Organisations:

• Employer of the Year – Small
• Employer of the Year – Medium
• Employer of the Year – Large
• Excellence in Supporting Veteran and/or Partner Employment - National
• Excellence in Supporting Veteran and/or Partner Employment - Regional
• Outstanding Employer of the Year

The award recognises research in the physical and biological sciences, allowing interdisciplinary and sociocultural research that could straddle the social sciences and humanities, by outstanding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD students and early- and mid-career scientists. It aims to support their research and/or the expansion and growth of their research networks and international knowledge exchange through visits to relevant international centres of research.

Awards will be for up to $20,000, with additional support provided to attend the Academy's biennial Science at the Shine Dome event.

The WIP Doctor Stream makes direct payments to doctors who deliver eligible services in eligible locations.

The WIP Doctor Stream aims to encourage doctors to practise in regional rural and remote communities. It also promotes careers in rural medicine by providing financial incentives. For doctors to receive incentive payments, they must provide eligible services in eligible locations. We determine the locations using the Modified Monash Model (MM 2019) geographical classification system.

You can receive incentive payments of between $3,600 and $60,000 per year, depending on activity levels, location,  how long a doctor has been part of the program and, from 1 January 2024, a doctor’s vocational registration status.

It uses 2 systems to assess and pay these financial incentives:

• Central Payment System (CPS) – for doctors who bill the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) for eligible services.
• Flexible Payment System (FPS) – for doctors who provide eligible services and/or undertake training that is not reflected in the MBS.

Some doctors may provide services under both payment systems.

Payments are based on:

• activity levels within eligible locations
• how long a doctor has been part of the program and, from 1 January 2024
• a doctor’s vocational registration status (starting from 1 January 2024).

The WIP Doctor Stream replaced the General Practice Rural Incentives Program (GPRIP) in early 2020.

Agristarter Loans provide farmers with loans to either assist them in starting their own farming business or to plan for and implement succession arrangements.

There are 2 kinds of Agristarter loans:

• first farmer - loans for indivduals seeking to purchase, establish or develop a farm business in which they will hold the sole or controlling interest
• sucession - loans for farm businesses planning for, or undertaking succesion arrangements

Loans may be used to:

• buy an existing farm business
• establish a new farm business
• buy out relatives during farm business succession
• pay costs associated with the succession planning process
• pay for legal costs or stamp duty