News

NSW drops SIV bond rule

Competition among the states for investment dollars being channeled through the Significant Investor Visa program has forced New South Wales to drop its requirement for 30 per cent of...

Chris Bowen’s startup agenda

As Immigration Minister in 2012, Chris Bowen was the architect of the Significant Investor Visa program that is bringing cashed-up business people to Australia. Now, as the Shadow Treasurer,...

Vanstone: Waking the SIV giant

Earlier this week I spoke with former Howard Government minister Amanda Vanstone about the Significant Investor Visa (SIV) program as a guest on her excellent weekly Radio National program,...

Building links in China’s Startupland

One hundred young innovators from China will travel to Sydney’s VIVID festival of ideas next year to be matched with 100 young Australian counterparts for an ambitious five-day program...

The looming war on young people

The Australian Government’s extreme plan to force young unemployed people to wait six months before becoming eligible for welfare benefits has more to do with young people who have...

The Chief Scientist is rightfully cranky

The Chief Scientists of most advanced economies today have better things to do than spend their time trying to convince kids – and their government – that studying science,...

Abbott on tech competitiveness

The release of the Tony Abbott-chaired National Industry Investment and Competitiveness Agenda has been pushed beyond August, so the startup sector will need to sit on its hands a...

Hugh Geiger: The exit interview

It is crunch time for Ollo Wearables’ CEO Hugh Geiger. He has packed his bags and left Australia. The company has moved to San Francisco. Actually it was crunch...

SIV: Great wall of frustration

There are more than 1,000 formal applications from wealthy Chinese for Significant Investor Visas sitting in Hong Kong with officials from the Australian Immigration department waiting for approval. This...

Billson: Startups a small business?

Federal Small Business Minister Bruce Billson added some shape to some of the unknowns in government’s tech sector industry policy on Friday at a G20 satellite conference on small...

Maurice Newman on innovation

Maurice Newman has some interesting views on innovation in Australia, and it is unfortunate they didn’t get wider circulation in the tech sector’s discussions on industry development. Newman is,...

SIV Program: Where’s the data?

There is a problem developing in relation to the Significant Investor Visa program. The problem isn’t about a lack of cash pouring into the Immigration department’s gigantic SIV funnel...

China’s Xi cranks innovation engine

In a week in which our Prime Minister has been spruiking the resources sector and the promise of great returns for investment in Australian infrastructure, China’s President Xi Jinping...

China: Our best tech friend in Asia

The health of the relationship with China is fundamental to the health of the Australian economy. This overwhelming consensus view is not just related to Australia’s resources sector and...