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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Tax concessions worth $206 million on income from derived from Australian medical and biotechnology patents is one of the few headline investments for the tech and startup sector in the 2021 federal budget by treasurer Josh Frydenberg. The Government is offering a Patent Box regime with a low 17% corporate tax rate to boost Australian… Read more »
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 »
After 20 years of rhetoric from both sides of politics focusing on getting back to surplus, this year’s budget continues pandemic spending in the hope of getting the economy back on track as the pandemic starts to settle. The projected deficit is $161 billion for 2021-22, but rather than tackling this in the next four… Read more »
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 »
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 »
More than $500 million of a $1.2 billion digital economy strategy in Tuesday’s budget will be spent on overhauling the federal government’s myGov and My Health Record sites. The initiatives, to be announced by Scott Morrison on Thursday, include $200.1 million for myGov, which is the main portal for people to access government services online.… Read more »
The government-owned NBN Co has taken on a fresh $US2 billion (~$A2.6bn) in debt via a bond issue in the US as it seeks to wean itself off federal government funding. The issue was made up of a five-year bond of $US750m and a 10-year bond of $US1.25 billion. The five-year bond will mature in… Read more »
The local video game industry wants to make skilled migration easier in order to attract and retain talented workers. Speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing into the skilled migration program on Monday, industry representatives lamented the opportunities gone begging because of a system that is not fit-for-purpose. Dr Jens Schroeder, a director at the Interactive… Read more »
As the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) celebrated 100 years with a spectacular and well-attended flyover in Canberra last week, many eyes were lifted to the skies. But RAAF’s ambitions go even higher, as its motto “through adversity, to the stars” hints. The Chief of Air Force, Air Marshall Mel Hupfeld, announced the intention to… Read more »
Anthony Albanese will promise a Labor government would deliver a discount to cut the cost of electric cars and install community batteries, in modest initiatives costing $400 million over several years. The announcement, to be made Wednesday, comes as Labor debates its platform at a “virtual” national conference involving some 400 participants. At present only… Read more »
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