Federal budget 2020: Praise for digital economy focus

Australia’s tech industry largely welcomed a focus on the digital economy in Tuesday’s budget, including millions of dollars in fresh funding for cybersecurity and STEM skills.

Australia’s tech industry largely welcomed a focus on the digital economy in Tuesday’s budget, including millions of dollars in fresh funding for cybersecurity and STEM skills training, as well as extra support for the R&D tax incentive scheme.

Pieter Danhieux, CEO and co-founder of Secure Code Warrior, said the industry was facing an alarming skills shortage amid a growing political threat.

“Increased funding will further organisations like AustCyber, ACSC and business leaders alike to establish a robust security posture,” Mr Danhieux said. “With a need of 18,000 experts by 2026, funding the foundations that bring the cybersecurity industry to the forefront is a win-win for all.”

Nick Lennon, country manager for Mimecast ANZ, said most SMBs wanted the best cybersecurity possible, but it was not always affordable, easy to implement or access.

“The next step is to roll out the strategy in a way that incentivises businesses of all sizes to invest not only in technology, but also in awareness and training, considering human error accounts for over 90 per cent of incidents,” Mr Lennon said.

Key tech industry players including Culture Amp and Atlassian also had sought a windback of last year’s move to cut the R&D tax incentive scheme by $1.8bn.

“This is very good news,” Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga said. “When you look at how much work needs to be done to rebuild the Australian economy, it is precisely policies like the R&D tax incentive that will deliver much-needed jobs and growth.

“The R&D tax incentive has enabled countless companies, Culture Amp included, to invest in creating world-leading technology. The RDTI is critical to ensuring our best and brightest founders choose to continue to be based in Australia, to invest in this economy and keep many thousands of good jobs onshore.”

Atlassian co-CEO Scott Farquhar said technology was crucial to Australia’s long-term success.

“The technology industry is a fast-track to Australia’s post-pandemic recovery. It’s a massive force multiplier for jobs and already makes up 6 per cent of our GDP, a number which could be much higher,” Mr Farquhar said.

Mark Blum, CEO of smart connectivity firm Cognian Technologies, said it was vital the government continued to invest in innovation: “With predecessors including Canva and SafetyCulture showcasing the best of Australian innovation on the world’s stage, we know there is a huge opportunity to continue growing our innovation export industry.”

Rob Nicholls, associate professor from the school of taxation and business law at the University of NSW, questioned why the administration of the government’s Consumer Data Right had been taken away from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, which developed it with industry.

“The decision … is odd,” Dr Nicholls said. “It’s not clear that Treasury has the capacity required to administer the CDR, even with an additional $28m.”

He said support for small businesses to go digital needed to scale up rapidly. Jane Livesey, ANZ CEO of IT services multinational Cognizant, said a $7bn digital fast-track was a move in the right ­direction.

“The investment in identity management, cybersecurity and the network are the foundations of any digital transformation, and provide confidence that we are really serious about getting this right,” Ms Livesey said. “What is less clear at this stage is how we are going to build on these foundations with more specific initiatives to realise the value, and how we plan to overcome the barriers to digitising our economy.”

Gavin Wilson, managing director Asia-Pacific at Cradlepoint, said he was encouraged by the government’s focus on funding to support business trials of 5G.