“Innovation is critical to Australia’s growth and standard of living,” reads the just-released 2016-2017 Australian Federal Budget. “Supporting innovative firms to seize new opportunities will create competition, access to new markets and employment growth.”
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Scott Morrison’s budget says that Australia has “the fundamentals in place” to be a leader in innovation, and that we “need to take advantage of our strengths” to foster business activity and new ideas.
The $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda has been announced with the intention of supporting ” a culture of ideas and innovation” with the ultimate end goal to encourage commercialisation and investment.
The Government says it is “making it easier” to obtain capital, collaborate with researchers and attract talent from overseas.
“Improved insolvency laws, crowd-sourced funding laws and tax laws, will support innovative Australians and encourage investment,” the Budget reads. “Reforms to employee share schemes, and the tax concessions for early stage investors and venture capital will encourage investment in innovative startup firms.”