Council to harness economic potential of tech sector

Afterpay is just one of a rapidly growing list of local tech companies succeeding internationally, despite fierce global competition and increasing geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

The Covid-19 pandemic has been the most destabilising period in our lifetime. The economic and social impacts are being felt in every part of our lives. Technology has been central to our resilience through the pandemic and will be pivotal to our economic recovery – accelerating investment, jobs and skills.

Australia’s tech sector has been booming for the past decade and workers have embraced the job opportunities the industry is creating – the numbers speak for themselves. New research released by Accenture shows technology has become the seventh-largest source of jobs in the nation – more than 861,000 of them.

Today, more Australians work as software developers than as plumbers, hairdressers or high school teachers – that’s one in 16 workers in well-paid, secure jobs. Many of these Australians are just like us and did not grow up thinking they would be working in the tech sector – given our first experience with tech was elbowing the other 25 students out of the way for our turn on the only computer in the classroom.

These technology jobs could not have come at a better time. During the pandemic, the tech sector generated 65,000 jobs, the economy’s second-highest job creator behind only retail. Critically, at a time of low wage growth, these are the kinds of jobs Australians always aspired to, just with different titles, skills and opportunities.

Accenture’s data also debunks the myth that tech sector workers are predominantly hipster types living in the inner cities of Melbourne and Sydney. The reality is, just like most Australians, the majority of tech workers live in suburbs and regional areas. Southeast Queensland is now the fastest-growing region for tech workers and most tech workers who call Sydney home live in outer suburbs like Parramatta and Blacktown.

We believe, ultimately, opportunities in this sector will only get bigger – and will spread geographically. Tech jobs have already grown by 66 per cent since 2005, compared with the average jobs growth rate of 27 per cent across the broader economy.

Afterpay, a local tech company founded by Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen, neighbours who met while taking the bins out, is now worth $39bn just seven years later. Afterpay is just one of a rapidly growing list of local tech companies succeeding internationally, despite fierce global competition and increasing geopolitical and economic uncertainty. The Australian tech sector’s global success will remain a powerhouse, driving economic growth and job creation at home. It is already contributing $167bn to our economy, more than 8.5 per cent of GDP. Crucially, it is an enabler of other industries, generating growth, productivity and safety in agriculture, mining, banking and healthcare. By 2030, our tech sector will contribute more to GDP than primary industries or manufacturing.

It is not just our big businesses that have adopted tech. According to new research from the OECD, small businesses that ramped up their app use during the pandemic as a way to connect to customers grew by three percentage points more than firms that didn’t. Much of the software enabling this transformation was developed in Australia by local companies such as MYOB, SafetyCulture, Deputy, tyro, Sonder and CultureAmp.

The past 18 months have shown planning and execution are everything. This is why leaders from across the industry have united to form the Tech Council of Australia, being launched on Wednesday. It has three goals for the sector: employ one million Australians by 2025; grow the economic value of tech activity to $250bn by 2031, and; make this nation the best place to start and grow a global firm – keeping jobs on our shores.

Wyatt Roy is a former federal innovation minister for the LNP and Kate Jones is a former Queensland minister for innovation for Labor.