The Government tries to argue that negative gearing should be changed on one hand, while adding stimulus on the other with the new “National Science and Innovation Agenda”.

At least there is some great news for the technology economy with the government moving to introduce incentives to help startups and venture capital investment into the technology industry, hopefully “shoring up the dyke” of technology knowledge and intellectual property that is flooding overseas every day from Australia.  The ideas are not new to much of the world, that regularly introduce incentives to attract big business and new technology to their shores, but they are well timed for Australia.

They include tax deductions for capital invested and capital gains tax fee periods for sale of shares, creating a great incentive for investors to take some risk in this industry and small start-up companies.  New Venture Capital incentives are also on offer.  The legislation is yet to be passed through parliament, but is intended to be available from 1 July this year.