Funding not fairy tales: Why the NSW Innovation Blueprint is a pile of magic beans

Looking at the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, it’s disappointing to see how disconnected it is from the day-to-day realities of being an innovator.

Just like magic beans – big on promises, but scant on mechanisms. Without knowing the responsible government executives, the funding, the timelines and specific actions, it’s very hard to believe it will live up to its name.

Instead of chasing fairy tales and relying on being the biggest state with the biggest city, NSW needs real investment to make this state the best place to innovate.

Sadly, NSW measures innovation’s value by reference to jobs, international trade & investment, and urban renewal. I used to think it was such a blinkered vision.

This latest Blueprint updates those references to specify 100,000 jobs, scaling and retaining global unicorns, supporting diversity including female founders, while fixing the housing crisis and global warming!

That’s the “vision.”

Most founders I know just want to solve one business problem, by commercialising an emerging technology solution, and one financial problem, by having enough dollars in the bank account to pay their bills this month. Maybe that’s the blinkered vision?

False promises and misplaced trust won’t help Jack (or Jill) reach the sky

In the fairy tale of Jack and the Beanstalk, a young entrepreneur meets a mysterious man who makes some extraordinary promises: a handful of magic beans will deliver the future!

Jack takes a risk, and climbs a rapidly growing beanstalk, only to discover it’s a pathway to a strange new land run by a giant. In this land, Jack (or it could be Jill) must extract value from the giant to achieve success. The beanstalk itself is intrinsically worthless, literally built on a hill of beans, and ultimately sacrificed.

It’s scary how well this fairy tale describes NSW government’s approach, where innovation is a means to an end, rather than an independent priority. As a result, it lacks the necessary empowerment from funding and civil servants who can make things happen.

The mysterious man is Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Anoulack Chanthivong, who unveiled the 10-year Blueprint on Monday, 31 March (just in time to avoid April Fool’s Day).

The new land is Tech Central and its surrounding suburbs of Chippendale, Eveleigh, Redfern, Surry Hills and Ultimo.

The giant is any one of Atlassian, Afterpay, Canva and Safety Culture, who all have offices in Sydney’s downtown.

The magic beans are, of course, the government’s bureaucratic policies, which contain no commitment to any actual spend, only two off-Budget investment funds, that may or may not eventuate.

Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Anoulack Chanthivong, has even suggested the ecosystem should “go and knock on the door of the Treasurer” to get in-Budget funding in June.

Odd that he doesn’t see that as part of his job. He is the Minister for Innovation, and it’s his face on the Blueprint, but he’s not responsible for getting it funded?

Stark contrast with Victoria and Queensland, the rival states

Victoria has its $2 billion Breakthrough Victoria fund. Queensland has its $130 million Venture Capital Development Fund as part of the $755 million Advance Queensland initiative.

They take broader approaches and prioritise more direct mechanisms, for example, investing in businesses at the startup stage, and supporting an ecosystem spanning regional innovation hubs and startup accelerators.

They also understand the importance of industry attraction, and commercialisation pathways.

Speaking from my own recent experience, an overseas fintech unicorn was able to secure significant support from the Victorian government to locate its Australian headquarters in Melbourne, before NSW civil servants could even confirm who should take a meeting!

NSW voters need to know who is responsible for this Blueprint, because Innovation seems to bounce from Jobs to Investment, and now we’ve got Housing, Western Sydney, Climate Change, and potentially other departments involved, too.

What about the Sydney Startup Hub, SXSW Sydney and Spark Festival?

When the Sydney Startup Hub closure was announced in December 2024, the startup community’s reaction revealed a clear preference for a CBD location, due to proximity to relevant stakeholders.

With a mere six months until the October 2025 deadline, we still don’t know where the Hub is supposed to be going. I suspect it will be distributed among the different downtown facilities run by Fishburners, Stone & Chalk, and Tank Stream Labs.

Stone & Chalk has told its Wynyard community those facilities will close in August.

Most tenants I know are choosing to stay in the money end of the CBD, just taking a left rather than a right when they come out of the train station, to go down the hill to the bustling Barangaroo precinct.

The Blueprint suggests exploring the possibility of a NSW Tech Week to attract global investors and highlight local startups.

But NSW government has already committed $324.5 million to Destination NSW to deliver events like the week-long SXSW Sydney – where a Platinum Badge will set you back a cool $1,495.

This commitment seems to have caused the budget-friendly grassroots Spark Festival (previously known as the Sydney Startup Festival) to be inconvenienced by having to move its events from October to earlier in the year, and it has lost its NSW government funding for the main Sydney showcase festival, only receiving some minor funding for regional and peripheral activities.

Why are we gambling on magic beans?

Jack had big dreams. Like any startup founder, he wanted to build something great. But when he went looking for funding, the government handed him ‘magic beans” via a flashy innovation blueprint full of buzzwords, but light on real support.

Instead of requiring innovation to be an input into the economy, NSW would do better to prioritise Jack or Jill’s success as a valued output, backed by real investment, strong policy support, and infrastructure that enables sustainable growth.