{"id":48335,"date":"2023-10-20T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/atlassian-co-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-questions-if-the-innovation-agenda-is-dead-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:58:19","slug":"atlassian-co-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-questions-if-the-innovation-agenda-is-dead-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/atlassian-co-founder-mike-cannon-brookes-questions-if-the-innovation-agenda-is-dead-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes questions if the innovation agenda is dead – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mike<\/div>\n

Prominent tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes has questioned where the federal government\u2019s \u201cinnovation\u201d messages have gone, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reportedly prepares to step up and take control of selling the government\u2019s economic agenda in the lead up to this year\u2019s federal budget.<\/p>\n

However, one entrepreneurship expert tells SmartCompany<\/em> important policy work is still going on in the background.<\/p>\n

On Thursday the Prime Minister told an audience at a Fairfax<\/em> business summit that the budget would not be fixed if the government ignored spending, pledging he would not \u201ccommit to spending money that simply isn\u2019t there\u201d.<\/p>\n

The speech comes as the ABC<\/em> reports Turnbull is preparing to get front and centre in selling the government\u2019s budget messaging, ahead of Treasurer Scott Morrison, with the Prime Minister expected to deliver a series of other keynotes promoting the Coalition\u2019s strengths as economic managers in the lead up to the May budget.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Turnbull discussed how budget repair was key to productivity, and called for bipartisanship on economic policies fostering innovation.<\/p>\n

However, Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has questioned just how committed the government is to innovation, more then 12 months after Turnbull first launched the government\u2019s innovation agenda.<\/p>\n

Cannon-Brookes told the same business summit that politicians have fallen silent on the benefits of Turnbull\u2019s \u201cIdeas Boom\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s just say the dreams that a lot of people had a year ago have not been realised, if anything we appear to have gone in the opposite direction in terms of a national dialogue, which I think is sad,\u201d he said, according to Fairfax.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen was the last time you actually heard someone say that [ideas boom] let alone write about it in the last six months?\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: Year one of Malcolm Turnbull\u2019s innovation agenda \u2013 a SmartCompany<\/em> report card<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cannon-Brookes said more needs to be done to communicate the benefits of pivoting businesses towards new ideas for growth, which includes having a discussion about the jobs that will be lost in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be honest and empathetic and admit there are going to be a massive amount of jobs destroyed, [ and] there are going to be massive amount of jobs created,\u201d he said, reports Fairfax<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 15 months since the Prime Minister unveiled his \u201cInnovation Agenda\u201d in December 2015 and a number of pieces of the $1.1 billion policy suite are still being rolled out.<\/p>\n

The government has only announced new funding and opportunities in recent weeks for policy pledges like the Digital Marketplace for connecting startup businesses to government tenders and funding for the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects scheme. Meanwhile, other startup placement programs are only just welcoming new cohorts.<\/p>\n

At the time, Turnbull slated the policy package as one that would encourage Australians to use their ideas to secure the country\u2019s economic future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a culture, a national culture of innovation, of risk-taking, because as we do that, we grow the whole ecosystem of innovation right across the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rufus Black, Master of Ormond College and the Wade Institute for Entrepreneurship in Melbourne, says we\u2019re now at the stage at which actual work is being undertaken on the comprehensive policy suite.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery substantial work is going on \u2014 it\u2019s really important with the innovation agenda that critical policy work is the next step,\u201d Black told SmartCompany. <\/em><\/p>\n

However, the big challenge for Turnbull and his innovation team going forward will be selling the idea that innovation will benefit everyone, not just technology entrepreneurs, Black says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important task is to make innovation feel like an opportunity, not a threat. The danger is less about losing [policy] momentum as losing public commitment to the innovation agenda,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To make sure it doesn\u2019t lose that public commitment, it\u2019s vital the government keeps communicating solid examples of where traditional industries like manufacturing have created niches for themselves by employing innovative thinking, Black believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kind of things they should put front row and centre are those that have found ways of finding global niches and that are still in business,\u201d Black says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to highlight in traditional industries where there is something going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number one priority should be creating a policy approach that is consistent and bipartisan, Black says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to create something that\u2019s stable. Australia needs to get back to good policy formation; broad engagement across government and a long term focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The <\/em>policy rollout still has some way to go, and according to Innovation and Science Australia\u2019s 2016 report into the nation\u2019s innovation system, there\u2019s some work to do.<\/p>\n

The review, which looks at how well the country creates, transfers and applies knowledge, highlights more needs to be done to allow businesses and researchers to share their knowledge and create innovative projects.<\/p>\n

This article was first published on<\/em> SmartCompany.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prominent tech entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes has questioned where the federal government\u2019s \u201cinnovation\u201d messages have gone, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reportedly prepares<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,9,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}