Roundtable ignores the most urgent leak in our productivity pipeline
This month's Productivity Commission roundtable is Jim Chalmers' chance to take his reform agenda for a spin. While the roundtable will toy with a transitional GST rebate and the ACTU's four-day fantasy, it will ignore the most urgent leak in our productivity pipeline: the innovators.
If you're in the start-up game, it's no shock that your sights are set on the US. The gravitational pull of Silicon Valley or New York, where ambition rubs shoulders with billion-dollar ideas, is hard to resist. But we know money talks. The US venture capital market is a $2 trillion juggernaut – nearly 300 times the size of Australia's $6 billion pool. When the funding gap is that wide, it's no wonder our brightest minds are boarding flights instead of building empires at home.
We shouldn't forget the young professionals in industries like investment banking, management consulting and law who will soon relieve themselves of client calls and corporate hierarchies. Lockstep progression and conservative cultures have dissuaded them from aiming higher on the corporate ladder. Many of them will look to build globally, instead of climbing locally.
Tim Fung famously traded investment banking for Airtasker, the go-to platform for gig work. Jane Lu's transition from EY to global fashion stardom with Showpo is also well known. It's a miracle we held on to either of them, unlike Andrew Lacy, who ditched McKinsey to eventually start up health tech company Prenuvo in the US.
More young professionals are leaving Australia each year. These bright minds aren't just chasing higher pay and lower taxes abroad, they're chasing ecosystems that actually move. If we're not careful, their next Eureka moment will be in Manhattan, not Melbourne.
Next week's roundtable must link productivity to people, especially the next generation of innovators. The roundtable will convene to discuss productivity, economic resilience and budget sustainability. Although important issues, none will directly address the brain drain.
Meanwhile, the European Innovation Council Accelerator is handing founders up to $4 million in grant funding and $16 million in blended financing. An even shorter haul to Singapore will get our innovators fast-tracked support through co-investment schemes. Australia offers a patchwork quilt of grants and red tape.
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