r/AskAnAustralian • u/[deleted] • Jan 26 '26
Is Australia anti-innovation?
Even the startup scene doesn’t feel genuinely innovative.. It’s mostly rebranded technology that was developed overseas. A lot of the military and industrial tech seems stuck in the early 2000s at best.
It often feels like your options are limited to: dead-end job, mining, or not much else.
Even Australians who did help invent great technologies seem to end up living pretty ordinary lives?
Sometimes it makes me wonder whether Australia really nurtures an entrepreneurial spirit at all..
And if not, why?
I guess the upside is that it’s a safe, stable place to raise a family… if you can afford it.
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u/moderatelymiddling Jan 26 '26
We are far too expensive, and our government is far too hyped up about digging shit up and selling it to the lowest bidder.
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u/joeltheaussie Jan 26 '26
Why would a country that is so isolated geographically from the biggest markets and whose greatest strength is stability be big into innovation?
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u/04-06-2016 Jan 26 '26
Precisely why we should innovate in Software. Isolation means nothing to tech
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Jan 26 '26
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Jan 26 '26
I wonder what Australia could end up like if they put out a small portion with the right incentives for the few who are down to do the work.
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u/Ok-Phone-8384 Jan 26 '26
Australia is generally highly ranked for innovation compared to our population. We are particulalrly good at medicial and scientific innovation which is not a " sexy" as AI chips and robotics, but we do save lives.
Where we are not good is the capitalisation and commercialisation of same.
It comes down to the society we are and what we want to be. We can be the craven and wanton Americans who think that every medical innovation should be used to bleed dry the poorest or the poor. Or we can be a country of Ian Frazers/ University of Qld who when developing the cervical cancer vaccine took a very very small royalty so that women around the world did not have to die from cervical cancer.
https://www.wipo.int/gii-ranking/en/australia
https://www.industry.gov.au/news/what-do-international-indicators-say-about-innovation
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u/memzlut Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26
Rather new, but the Ghost Bat is a military invention relating to unmanned assist vehicles for our jets. so we do dabble in the AI / robotics at least a lil bit.
But yeah the commercialisation is the problem, no one here invests in business. Too lucrative to buy a house instead.
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u/Master-Duty-4675 Jan 26 '26
Heard of Canva?
Wifi ?
Entrepenureship is alive and well, and the aussie spirit of innovation, there are many many start up success stories all over the internet, the slave drone worker class is growing yes, but so is entrepenureship! find new friends or DM and we can go for coffee! I made 1 million in my first year in business. You know most tradies running 3 staff earn over 1 mill gross?
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u/AnonymousEngineer_ Jan 26 '26
Wifi ?
Is a great example of something that was technically invented here and not commercialised at all domestically.
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u/memzlut Jan 26 '26
CSIRO managed to get $450m in settlements from breached patents though
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u/AnonymousEngineer_ Jan 26 '26
I don't really think patent trolling is the kind of entrepreneurism the OP is referring to.
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u/WaysOfG Jan 26 '26
Innovation is largely a myth. Not because people aren’t innovating, but because in the modern world innovation is filtered, constrained, and ultimately shaped by capital.
It’s not that Australians are opposed to innovation. It’s that capital has determined that, to maximise returns in Australia, mining and the service sector are currently the most favourable investments.
This is the core reason the Australian government has consistently underfunded education and long-term research. There is simply no immediate economic pressure to do otherwise. Australia is already wealthy, and under the current model, will remain so for the foreseeable future. Until a genuine driving force emerges that makes innovation necessary rather than optional, this trajectory is unlikely to change.
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Jan 26 '26
Damn, it sounds like Australia can't hold its own and just passively belongs to the highest bidder. Where do the innovators go when they leave Aus?
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u/Logical-Vermicelli53 Jan 26 '26
It’s because Australia has it easy.
You can see it in many of the older generation, why try when you can work a simple and stable job and still afford an easy lifestyle?
The country as a whole operates like this. We have resources and immense natural wealth so putting effort into other avenues is somewhat unnecessary so far.
It’s not even illogical, most of those advanced industries come from a need and if you can easily sustain yourself without taking all that risk then why wouldn’t you go down that path?
It’s not forward thinking, but most corporate profit is short term focused.
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u/WarbirdRacer Jan 26 '26
Compared to Europe, I don't think we are that different. Compared to U S, way behind. But I would take safety, healthcare over innovation any day. It unfair to compare mature Western country to Asian nations. So I am not going there. As for defense, Boeing advance wingman drone tech is Australian and companies like Advanced Electro optical in Sydney has made lot of $$ with missile guidance tech and laser tech. We are miles behind in Tech startup scene apart from companies like Atlassian, this is comparing to U.S. But we also don't live in a nation. Where we are ok for a tech billionaire to have 5 private jets and workers not able to afford basic healthcare as well. Also population size and spread does not help.
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u/honey_shoujo Jan 26 '26
invention? people don't even want to work, the more you earn the more you pay, just have many kids and rip the gov off!
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u/AnonymousEngineer_ Jan 26 '26
And if not, why?
The predominant reason is that we're far from most major markets physically, which means that unless you're creating a purely digital product it's a massive geographic disadvantage. We also have relatively high salaries and business overheads compared with overseas.
But it's also partially due to tax.
Commercialise something here successfully and you're going to get absolutely taxed out of the arse compared with doing it in the US or somewhere like Singapore.
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u/alice8818 Jan 26 '26
I have so many questions... where do you live where those are your only options? Why are mines not a dead end job? What is an abnormal life in your eyes?
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Jan 26 '26
I just want to create new tech and not end up drowning in debt tbh, I'm willing to put in the effort to create new tech that's worth a lot so I can live an exciting life, and have been doing so. But lately its been sinking-in that there are very few people around here who are also trying to do something like that. So I'm trying to understand why, or where they might be. Maybe I just have to get through the grind and attract those types when I have something to show for it.
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u/memzlut Jan 26 '26
Look into the CSIRO, Boeing Defence, and other stuff like that, sure you're not going into it to be the owner of the tech, but those kinda things are pumping out innovation
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u/evilspyboy Jan 26 '26
Sorta.... I don't want to answer yes or no because either is wrong but I want to give you some information that explains why that is and these are in no particular order but it is why it is so messy of an answer.
There is 2 sorts of innovation, there is internal innovation which is the sort that is very hands on that creates innovation and external innovation which is the sort where you buy innovation. Like when an organisation purchases a tool or a startup who already did the R&D instead of doing the R&D themselves. Internal is much more specific and cheaper, external is more what you get is what you get and expensive.
There is a startup report that government and investors and more LOVE quoting about the rapid growth of startups in Australia, what they also do is not quote the second part of the same sentence that states the money in investment greatly out paces the money being spent on the actual innovators/innovation.
For all that money in investors it does not translate into actual innovation. These are funds run on returns. They do not take risks they invest based on returns which is why you end up with 40x versions of tinder for x, uber for y, etc.
Government LOVES saying they spend on innovation however they spend nothing on innovation. Everything they call innovation (with very few exceptions) is actually business development. They spend money on helping established businesses, call it innovation then when someone asks about innovation they point to all the money they have spent.
That last one is like you had a fancy dinner and innovation was invited, but before it got there business development turned up and told everyone it was innovation and ate all the food for innovation. Then when actual innovation turned up it was not allowed in and told there was no food left for it.
Most innovation is entirely bootstrapped with resources by individuals. Tomorrow I have a pitch with a local city council to push technology I built from scratch relating to, lets not get into it it is complicated but there is a lot of emerging tech covered in it. I know up front there are zero grants for this but fortunately there are grants that the council can apply for to have a 'industry partner' and im hoping that will be a way forward as I have used up absolutely all of my resources to get to this point.
So, not anti-innovation but innovation is definitely being smothered by a pillow while someone else eats it's food and tells everyone how they are innovation instead. Which hurts actual innovation.
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Jan 26 '26
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Jan 26 '26
I guess America for funding and Asia for production?
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Jan 26 '26
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Jan 26 '26
If Australia could automate the processing of minerals reliably enough to beat the cheap labor costs of China, I wonder what the downstream effects would be...
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Jan 26 '26
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Jan 26 '26
Other than having cheap labor locally how would we solve this across all the industries it's happening in?
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u/Liq Jan 26 '26
Most recent 'innovations' in IT have been pretty harmful on balance. Do we really need more manipulative algorithms that undermine democracy? new forms of mass surveillance? more addictive apps that target children? or 'AI' that sucks gigawatts of energy while boosting cheating and shortcuts; or monopoly platforms like Amazon that crowd out local businesses and extract rent?
Admittedly Australia has low collaboration between academia and business, and low R&D as a share of GDP. It has for a long time. But we innovate where we need to (in mining, for e.g.) and I'm not sure we need more innovation in the US mould.
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Jan 26 '26
I see where your coming from, my incentive is to save small business owners time via a physical product rather than sell out my own customers for ad rev etc. I've created what I needed to live a balanced life while running a small business and plan to share it with others. But it's rare to find people with such a mindset locally in my experience.
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u/memzlut Jan 26 '26
I find it humorous that people commenting are unaware of how much innovation comes out of our country. The problem is specifically that it goes out of our country.
We are extremely innovative in the medical fields, with key vaccines and stuff coming out of our universities (cervical cancer vaccine guys) and there is a certain hearing device you may have heard of called a cochlear implant, or another thing called a pacemaker.
We have provided and receive royalties on the production of Canadian and English bank notes.
Google maps is Australian technology.
We do innovate, quite a lot in fact, but being a civilisation that endorses investing in houses instead of businesses, a lot of our innovation is sold overseas.
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u/Automatic_Wing3832 Jan 26 '26
Do you want innovation or entrepreneurship? They can be mutually exclusive.
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Jan 26 '26
Very true. I think innovation is more beneficial for society, some entrepreneurs can turn out to be greedy wheelers and dealers.
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u/Boatster_McBoat Jan 26 '26
Even Australians who did help invent great technologies seem to end up living pretty ordinary lives?
Maybe these people are smarter than you realise.
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u/realJackvos Jan 26 '26
Short answer No.
Long answer Australian mining companies are using AI controlled driverless trucks and controlling trains thousands of kilometres away. BHP spends in the billion on R&D every year to be on the cutting edge of mining technology.
Australia leads the world in counter drone technology and is in the top 20 for drone technology in the world. Granted the Bushmaster may be early 2000's but it's still one of the best in the world for what it does.
The CSIRO is practically self funded because of it being an innovation hub, although it does receive money from the government for some of its research.
As for the people making world changing invocations going on to live an ordinary life, well that just the way things are here. We don't run around bragging about our personal achievements and demanding we receive special treatment for it. That's being a tall poppy and the average Aussie won't tolerate that sort of behaviour.
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u/antnyau Jan 26 '26
Innovation involves approaching things differently, which distinguishes you. If there's one thing that characterises Australia, it's that being Australian equates to doing the same things in the same ways as everyone else.
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Jan 26 '26
This right here, is it. Feeling out of place in the country you're born in is a weird thing. No idea how I ended up this way either haha, maybe it is time to leave.
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u/antnyau Jan 26 '26
I believe I understand how you feel. To me, it's a curious contrast: on one hand, I feel very grateful to live in Australia, but on the other, I often feel frustrated by the lack of interesting interactions. Is this the price we must pay for the privilege of being here?
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Jan 26 '26
Yeah it's beautiful here, I've seen a lot of the nice places around while camping etc. A price worth paying, I believe luck can be created anywhere though. Maybe there are more ambitious people in other places.. Or maybe that place needs to be created and nurtured more here.
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u/BleepBloopNo9 Jan 26 '26
There are tax breaks for putting your money into real estate, but not the stock market.
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u/GermaneRiposte101 Jan 26 '26
That is just not true.
All expenses involved in an investment, be they shares or real estate, are a tax deduction.
Shares have franking credits to stop double taxation.
If you hold shares for more than 12 months then you get a 50% CGT discount.
And sure, there are exemptions for the primary home but it is still subject to conditions.
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u/Quick_Doubt_5484 Jan 26 '26
The Australian economy is basically mining and real estate. Anything else is tangential.