{"id":37371,"date":"2023-10-20T14:49:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-australian-startup-communitys-2016-federal-budget-wish-list-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:49:43","slug":"the-australian-startup-communitys-2016-federal-budget-wish-list-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-australian-startup-communitys-2016-federal-budget-wish-list-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The Australian startup community’s 2016 federal budget wish list – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Budget<\/div>\n

The federal budget for 2016 is a matter of hours away, and comes with high expectations from the Australian startup community.<\/p>\n

On the back of last year\u2019s $1.1 billion innovation statement<\/a>, innovation is now a central political issue, and is sure to be a key pillar of the budget.<\/p>\n

For StartupAUS CEO Alex McCauley, Tuesday night is a chance to consolidate the government policies already announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for the government to keep up the momentum on startups and innovation, as it promised to do when it launched the National Innovation and Science Agenda in December last year,\u201d McCauley says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government\u2019s focus on building the momentum in the Australian technology startup ecosystem has been very positive. StartupAUS would like to see this continue through the budget and on into the election platforms for both major parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a sentiment shared by Blue Sky Venture Capital investment director Elaine Stead.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wish list is that first we consolidate the great initial policy suggestions outlined in the innovation statement late last year into reality in the budget,\u201d Stead says.<\/p>\n

For startup advisor and investor Anne-Marie Elias, the budget will help to show whether the government\u2019s recent focus on startups is more than just rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget is a real opportunity to see where the government commitment lies in startups,\u201d Elias says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to see a real focus on regional communities and some incentives that support social enterprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with the innovation statement, Elias says she hopes the focus is on early-stage companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope there is greater recognition of the needs of early-stage startups, like access to education, mentors, networks, grants, incubation and customers,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many startups leave Australia because they don\u2019t have access to the right support during growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

We asked a range of Australian founders, entrepreneurs and investors for their own budget wish list and what needs to be included in Tuesday night’s budget to help the startup ecosystem grow.<\/p>\n

A focus on education<\/h3>\n

The budget should include a focus on the next generation of entrepreneurs through the\u00a0funding of STEM education initiatives, Blackbird Ventures head of operations Samantha Wong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the most forward-thinking schools can\u2019t find enough appropriately-qualified teachers to teach coding and other hard skills, and they need to engage the private sector and universities to deliver these services,\u201d Wong says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is naturally going to lead to a lump spread and disadvantaged schools are the most likely to miss out.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurriculum takes too long to change but if individual schools could apply for grants or similar to fund these programs I think things could change much faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is crucial to ensuring the government\u2019s much-talked about innovation agenda is actually effective, MoneyPlace CEO Stuart Stoyan says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important because that ultimately because the bedrock for the ideas boom,\u201d Stoyan says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need educated people to lift the talent pool in Australia and keep talent within the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

No changes to the\u00a0R&D tax incentive<\/h3>\n

One of the most common budget wishes coming from the startup community isn\u2019t for any extra funding at all, but for the R&D tax incentive to be left untouched.<\/p>\n

For DroneShield CEO James Walker, this policy should just be left alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cForget adding new policies, we\u2019re hoping the government doesn\u2019t change the current thresholds and benefits for the R&D tax offset scheme,\u201d Walker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is a world-leader in this space and it allows startups to continue to hire new engineering and commercialisation talent, so it would be a shame to see this revised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t touch the R&D tax incentive,\u201d Wong adds.<\/p>\n

But for McCauley, this tax incentive should actually be boosted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to see the R&D tax incentives be better targeted to help drive genuine innovation through startups,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to see a boost in the government\u2019s overall R&D expenditure. Australia currently spends just over 2% of GDP on R&D and to be a top performer on this metric that number needs to rise to about 3%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consolidating the investor incentives<\/h3>\n

A range of tax incentives for investments in early-stage startups were included in last year\u2019s innovation statement, and Wong says these should be consolidated in the budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is to attract fast-growing startups to set up APAC or even global HQs in Australia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will grow the number of Australians directly employed in STEM sectors and influences how many Australians will go on to build tech companies from Australia. It\u2019s an ecosystem jump-starter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concern has been raised over an \u2018investor strike\u2019<\/a> in the lead-up to the incentives coming into effect in July, and Stoyan says he hopes the budget will immediately implement the changes instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is currently from July but they will move to immediately action this, offering a 20% rebate for early-stage investments to expand existing startups,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important because anecdotally funding has somewhat stalled as investors wait for the tax breaks to kick in.\u201d<\/p>\n

PocketBook COO Bosco Tan says he\u2019d also like to see incentives included for larger, later-stage funding to bridge the so-called second \u2018Valley of Death\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see strong tax incentives to allow investors to take more risks on scaling funding for startups as that is really the pinch point for many in the industry right now,\u201d Tan says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to see the 10% tax rebate for venture capital investments \u2013 especially for rounds this size \u2013 expand. These measures are essential to prove the government is actually prepared to act on he ideas boom as it heads towards an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Improvements to visas<\/h3>\n

LeadChat founder Michael Jankie says he hopes to see improvements to Australia\u2019s visas in the budget in order to attract world-class talent and play to the country\u2019s stengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re global and we need global talent,\u201d Jankie says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we don\u2019t have the budgets and cafeterias to compete with Silicon Valley we do have the lifestyle that can be used to attract global talent. Changes to visas will mean we get better talent to further build Australian companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

These changes are crucial in order to attract talent workers to local startups, Employment Hero CEO Ben Thompson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat ideas and investments can only flourish if they are executed by skilled and capable teams,\u201d Thompson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis brings back in focus the need for improvements in investor and labour visa programmes geared to grow the technically skilled workforce. This would not only help create a favourable environment for entrepreneurship locally but reduce brain drain from Australian startups to overseas markets in search for better talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

This should also be extended to raising the profile of Australian companies internationally, Stead says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the entrepreneurial visas are a great start to encourage in-flow of world-class talent, but talented people are not just necessarily incentivised by a residency alone, but by working with great, globally competitive companies that have a global profile,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchemes that may support this, whether by subsidy or by providing platforms to build the profile of Australia\u2019s leading companies, would yield a great return on investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening up the super funds<\/h3>\n

The budget should also include incentives to encourage Australia\u2019s huge super funds to invest in venture capital, Walker says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has one of the most vibrant superannuation sectors in the world but we currently don\u2019t use this to our advantage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping the government looks into this by creating incentives for superannuation companies to take more of a risk on the startup sector with their investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<\/em>SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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