The proposal from a high-powered review of R&D to make Government Procurement conditional on investment in Australian innovation and research is potentially game-changing, TechnologyOne CEO and MD Ed Chung said today.

“This is exactly the type of initiative that will stimulate more fast-growing, global tech companies to start and, more importantly, stay in Australia,” Mr Chung said.

“It will tell tech businesspeople and investors that Australia is a place that will put it money where its mouth is when it comes to backing them.”

The expert panel conducting the review, chaired by Robyn Denholm and comprised of a distinguished group of experts, heard that, as they get bigger, Australian technology companies find themselves torn between “patriotism and pragmatism”.

They often want to stay in Australia, but large overseas markets lured them to relocate, Mr Chung said.

“Government procurement has been a key ingredient of the success of every dynamic tech culture, starting with Silicon Valley,” Mr Chung said.

“The panel has clearly grasped the problem of collapsing R&D investment in Australia requires the Government to do its bit as a customer, not just responding to calls for more handouts.

“TechnologyOne has pointed out the problem that government buyers were encouraged to value IP created overseas but were not required to value Australian made, Australian owned.

“The Federal Government took some action to address this last year, but so far there has not been a change in actual buying behaviour,’ Mr Chung said.

It was also not solely a job for the Federal Government.

“The Federal Government has taken on the issue and some states have also talked a good story,” he said.

“But we now need to put concrete measures in place and the panel’s idea will move the dial.”