Labor, at both the federal and state levels, is now deep into a multi-year string of regulations despised by startup founders: the proposed Division 296 tax on unrealised superannuation gains above A$3M, the mooted increase to sophisticated investor thresholds (from $250k income / $2.5M assets to $450k / $4.5M), the abolition of non-compete clauses below the high-income threshold, the Right to Disconnect, Victoria’s work-from-home legislation, tightened ESS reporting requirements, and now the 2026–27 CGT reform.

If your team is big enough to have well-defined departments, but you don’t have a few engineers scattered throughout these teams, you’re probably under investing in AI deployment. If you’re building an AI-enabled product, this should be especially embarrassing. You should hire some more engineers.

Is Australia destined to become a training ground for world-class founders and engineers, only to see them move to the US as their careers take off? This is not our destiny, but we need smarter, industry-friendly policy to build an alternative path, where startups start, thrive, and therefore stay in Australia. Let’s be the beneficiary of brain drain, not the victim.