[taligent]

a) Australia has one of the strongest economies on the planet right now. The IMF predicted that Australia would be the best performing major advanced economy in the world over the next two years.

b) Australia is on track to deliver a budget surplus which many countries would be envious of. It has one of the lowest GDP to debt ratios out of all major economies and there is no way Australia is at risk of defaulting.

c) Australia has by far the most stable, capitalised and sensibly regulated banking systems in the world. The banks are probably doing TOO well.

d) Australia has been planning for population ageing for decades and we could easily ramp up immigration. The problem is community attitudes and state infrastructure.

e) The problem with startups in Australia isn't the government or banks. It is the VCs and incubators who have this ridiculous notion that the "team is 100x more important than the idea". So we have lots of startups with great teams working on truly pointless products.

[locusm]

I can recall a case where Govt interference killed off an entire startup scene - datacasting. When Australia announced its move to a digital spectrum back around 2000 there were a bunch of us that started developing product for it, when the Gov't finally announced what content could be broadcast (childrens programmes) we closed up shop the next day. So we lasted 12 months, had major backing from the Ten Network and had working product demos. I think to a large degree the Govt at the time adopted Kerry Packers stance to keep the status quo. This is all reflected in what we have today, slightly better resolution and an EPG? Absolutely zero innovation is happening in this space as a result of the Govt.