Published on the 25/02/2015 | Written by Beverley Head

Australia is slowly going backward in the innovation stakes according to Nicta technology strategist, Dean Economou…

Australia’s peak ICT innovation agency, Nicta, believes that Australia is falling behind in the innovation stakes even though the nation’s economy requires renovation following the resources boom.

Dean Economou said that while some sectors had applied technology well – farming and mining were world leading he said – the “tech sector is below critical mass in a lot of areas”.

Speaking at the TechLeaders forum in the Blue Mountains, NSW, this week Economou said that Nicta needed to get bigger not smaller in order to support national innovation efforts. But the agency has already been told that it will lose its Federal Funding in 2016, and is in discussion with a series of organisations including the CSIRO about its long term future.

Economou was a participant in an innovation panel at the event which brought together experts from tech incubators and entrepreneurs to explore Australia’s track record on innovation. The report card they revealed was very mixed.

Pollenizer partnerships manager Nicola Farrell, applauded initiatives such as Telstra’s muru-D which has invested in 20 start-ups to date, but she lamented the fact that while 8 percent of Silicon Valley start-ups achieved scale, the Australian figure was a much lower 5 percent.

“That is a massive problem for our ecosystem,” said Farrell, adding that “partnering with corporates can help diminish that funding gap”. It’s that approach which offers Nicta its best chance of survival at present and the agency has been scurrying to forge research relationships with governments, universities and corporates.
Farrell said that in general it was important to give the Australian technology and start-up scene more time, as while an innovation economy had been going for 70 years in Silicon Valley, Australia was really only on its second generation of tech entrepreneurs.

Serial entrepreneur and tech investor, Tony Surtees, whose latest venture is as co-founder of meeting software developer Zeetings, said that it was important to attract both funding and seasoned talent to the sector. He lambasted the Government for taking so long to get rid of the prohibitive Employee Share Ownership Plan rules, which taxes options when they are granted rather than when they are realised, as he said this had limited start-ups’ ability to attract and keep talent.

That regime is now scheduled to be lifted – but not until July.

Surtees said more still needed to be done and floated the idea of extending the No Liability company structure to the tech sector – at present that is limited only to mining companies.

Single voices for reform however have limited volume – Blue Chilli chief operating officer Tony Burrett said, “we are still adolescent in approaching government – the more we can get together and act like a really important industry that is vital to Australia’s future the better”.

The author attended TechLeaders as a guest of MediaConnect