News & Analysis

Australia lacks a national plan for the digital economy and risks falling behind the global pack

- August 31, 2021 2 MIN READ

Australia leads the world on several technology fronts, but the Morrison government needs to accelerate industry digitisation or the country will lose its competitive advantage, the IT sector’s peak body, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) has warned. The organisation, which is backed by computer giants Dell and IBM, as well as Telstra, has produced… Read more »

Donald Trump
News & Analysis

Trump’s legal fight against Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is futile, but that’s not what this is about

- July 12, 2021 4 MIN READ

From condo salesman to reality TV host to leader of the free world, Donald Trump has occupied several lifetimes’ worth of identities over a remarkable career of reinventions. Even so, the billionaire mogul’s latest metamorphosis – into a consumer-rights plaintiff seeking to regulate big business – is a peculiar one. With a volley of lawsuits… Read more »

News & Analysis

The Budget’s ‘patent box’ plan is so poorly designed, it’s more likely to help multinationals reduce their tax bill than boost startup innovation

- May 19, 2021 3 MIN READ

On budget night federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced Australia is getting its own “patent box”. What is a patent box? Despite its odd name, it is a relatively straightforward concept. It means lowering the tax rate on all income derived from patents registered in a nation. About half the members of the European Union, Britain… Read more »

News & Analysis

Australia’s digital economy budget spend should be 10 times bigger than the budget plan

- May 17, 2021 4 MIN READ

The federal budget for 2021-22 promises A$1.2 billion over the next six years to support the Digital Economy Strategy, a plan to make Australia “a leading digital economy and society by 2030”. The Digital Economy Strategy proclaims We are well placed to be a leading digital economy and have strong foundations, but many countries are… Read more »

News & Analysis

Startup leaders react to the 2021 budget

- May 16, 2021 11 MIN READ

Nearly all the good news in this week’s budget was announced ahead of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg detailing the government’s plans for the year ahead. Nonetheless, we asked many in the startup and tech sector what they thought of the 2021 budget. Here are their reactions:   Rebecca Schot-Guppy CEO, FinTech Australia There weren’t too many… Read more »

News & Analysis

Labor wants to give 2000 uni students loans to learn how to launch their own startups

- May 14, 2021 2 MIN READ

A Labor government would offer 2000 university students and recent graduates loans of up to $11,300 through the HELP system to cover the cost of taking part in an accelerator program to launch their own startups.    Opposition leader Anthony Albanese announced the ‘Startup Year’ plan in his Budget reply speech on Thursday night. Labor said… Read more »

News & Analysis

Some of the biggest names in tech and VC have penned an open letter to the government about climate change

- May 13, 2021 4 MIN READ

A coalition of business, technology, venture capital and social impact leaders, led by Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, have written an open letter to the Morrison government calling on Canberra to stop investing in fossil fuels and abandon its “gas-led recovery”. The letter seeks a renewable energy target of 100% by 2030, with Australia reaching net… Read more »

Josh Frydenberg
News & Analysis

The budget killed off millions of dollars of support for startup incubators

- May 13, 2021 3 MIN READ

A program offering up to $250,000 to support startup incubators was closed by the federal government on budget night as treasurer Josh Frydenberg the government’s innovation credentials. The Incubator Support Initiative offered between $13,000 to $250,000 of funding for up to two years for incubator projects, covering up to 65% of the cost in regional… Read more »

News & Analysis

The budget is a dud for tech and startups

- May 12, 2021 4 MIN READ

Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott wrote: “The hour’s come and the man” and 180 years later, the phrase that launched a million memes could equally apply to the tech industry. Except in last night’s federal budget, in tech’s finest hour, it could barely be seen in treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s announcements. I’ll be blunt: when the… Read more »

News & Analysis

36 things in the budget you need to know about, according to CommSec’s economist

- May 11, 2021 2 MIN READ

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled the full picture of the Morrison government’s 2021 budget tonight, following a series of headline announcements over recent weeks. Among the key details of a Coalition government that previously sought to hammer the Labor opposition over its deficit budgets during the GFC a decade earlier was the fact that the budget… Read more »

Josh Frydenberg
News & Analysis

‘We want to see more innovation commercialised in Australia’: Josh Frydenberg’s 2021 Budget speech

- May 11, 2021 13 MIN READ

Australia is coming back. In the face of a once‑in‑a‑century pandemic, the Australian spirit has shone through. Doctors and nurses on the front line. Teachers and students in the virtual classroom. Businesses, big and small, keeping the economy moving. ‘Team Australia’ at its best. A nation to be proud of. We have come so far… Read more »

News & Analysis

The startup sector responds to the Australian government’s $1.2bn digital economy plan

- May 7, 2021 8 MIN READ

The federal government revealed some of its budget plans this week with prime minister Scott Morrison and treasurer Josh Frydenberg announcing a $1.2 billion Digital Economy Strategy. The headline figure is not as impressive as it initially sounds, with that figure spread out over six years rather than the usual budget stretch of four. And… Read more »