Published on the 13/10/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Australia will hold its first “policy hackathon” in Sydney this Saturday – presumably to come up with at least some minimal viable innovation policies for the new Turnbull Government…
Taking a leaf out of the technology sector’s book, the Assistant Minister for Innovation, Wyatt Roy has announced that Australia’s first Policy Hack will be held in Sydney on October 17.
The event is being facilitated and hosted by startup accelerator BlueChilli which is planning to bring together “representatives from startups, venture capital funds, accelerators, other components of the innovation ecosystem, higher education, science, research and policy experts from key government departments” according to a release from Roy’s office.
The event will borrow from hackathon methodology to allow teams to form and work on new innovation policy ideas. There are currently 139 ideas proposed, which have attracted just over 2,000 votes between them.
According to Roy; “Policy Hack is a strong, initial foray into disrupting the traditional policy-making process. It’s an opportunity to bring together key innovators and entrepreneurs from around our country to directly engage with the government on how we can foster innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Participants will be empowered to develop and pitch solutions that will grow agile, innovative and globally-competitive industries in Australia.”
The Turnbull Government has hit the ground running with regard to its innovation policy since coming to power in September. In a recent speech at RMIT Innovation Minister Christopher Pyne said that the country’s track record on innovation was mixed but that with the Industry Innovation and Competitiveness Agenda the Government was “placing science and research at the centre of fostering the innovation that will provide the framework to transition industry to high value added products and services.”
After opening a new carbon fibre manufacturing plant in Victoria last week Pyne told reporters that the Prime Minister had instructed him to “release his inner revolutionary” in order to fast track policies that might boost innovation.
Whether ideas revolutionaries will attend the policy hackathon isn’t clear, but the website makes clear that “everything is on the table” including funding, taxation, migration and education. At time of writing there are 139 ideas already on the site, such as providing tax incentives for angel investors, a programme that would give new graduates a $10,000 bonus for working with a startup for at least six months, and allowing startups to move into unused Federal office space gratis.
