[mmjaa]

Its always been true that cronyism rules the day when it comes to Australian governments' investments. I remember one of the very first 'successful' tech investments made in the 80's by the WA government, in a local electronics manufacturing firm which required funds to build up the production line for mass-producing PCB's and other electronic assemblies - without the small group of crony's that had assembled around this effort, there simply wouldn't have been any reason for the project.

In other words, Australia has the problem that in order to develop the market for the product, it has to develop the market locally - and as a very small nation with huge hubris, this means that projects like this, by necessity, attract the cronies.

So this has been encoded into the way the government operates: it has to address its efforts to the locals, or else there's nothing to build. And those locals don't see beyond their own small worlds - as is the case with Australians in general - when it comes to building something of true value in the international market.

There are definitely exceptions - I can think of a couple of successful investments into Australian startups in the 3d-printing space which, seemingly, have moved beyond this event horizon. But still, cronyism is as Australian as Two-up. Its a professional hazard, and a norm, in that small country.