Why Collaboration is Key in Meeting Australia’s Social Innovation Goals
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By Dickie Currer
As the old adage goes, “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”. In social innovation, where the ultimate aim is to improve the welfare and wellbeing of individuals and communities, this choice doesn’t exist. Going together is our only option.
However, in a country like Australia where the wider innovation ecosystem is fragmented by state borders – and with a low-risk tolerance for backing disruptors – that isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
Moving to Australia in 2015 from my native England, where the country’s policy mostly comes from a single source of truth, I had no idea of the concept of state devolutionary power.
It took five years until I first saw this in action as Australia’s states became separate jurisdictions in response to the COVID19 pandemic.
Shortly after, I entered the innovation ecosystem and saw the same thing play out. Australia’s states (and largely, its cities) operate independently and compete for the same slice of the pie – vying to be the “most innovative” or using cash incentives to lure new ventures to start up in their space
An optimist would say that this is healthy competition which rises the collective tide. A view I shared until I represented Australia overseas at London Tech Week 2023.
Time and again I heard feedback that it’s too hard to collaborate with a divided Australia and rather than sharing, each state is more inclined to ringfence their progress for themselves.
In the United States, they have the same problem. You’ll also encounter a country of 333 million people, with several of the world’s largest business hubs and an innovation economy which is nearly 2x that of its nearest competitors.
In a smaller market like ours, we can’t afford to cannibalise ourselves. Not only does it negatively impact our economy by making it harder for international collaboration and investment, but it also impacts how national social innovation takes place.
The other big barrier Australia needs to overcome is the collective risk appetite for backing our entrepreneurial community with the support and funding they need to succeed.
May’s Federal Budget 2024-25 only mentioned “startup’ once, and while there was some support for quantum AI and manufacturing, investment in our future innovators was underwhelming at best.
It’s important to point out that this problem isn’t one that is purely fuelled by the government. Our private sector also needs to come to the table and do more. In a country where our major industries are becoming more and more monopolised, there needs to be more accountability so that some of that unhealthy market share is used to support disruptive technology.
Enterprise also doesn’t come with the state first mentality outlined earlier. Akin to the founders that they should be supporting, they don’t care where their product/services are headquartered as long as people are buying it.
It’s my belief that it’s at the intersection of government, enterprise and entrepreneurship where we will find the solutions to our biggest societal problems. And by collaborating as one country we can leverage all of our assets in solving them.
There are examples of this at play already which are working very successfully.
One success story is the work that LaunchVic, the Victorian Government’s startup agency, is doing to solve industry specific problems. Specifically, its Civic Labs program, a pre-accelerator program that connects early-stage startup founders with the government to solve public sector challenges.
Its most recent challenge was designed in partnership with the Department of Transport and Planning, with toll road Operator Transurban also a collaborator.
Startups solving problems in this space go through a six-week program with the chance to receive equity free funding at the end. With 60 startups already having launched through the program since its inception in 2018, it’s clearly working.
Another strong example is the City of Melbourne’s yearly Open Innovation Challenge, which again looks to entrepreneurs to solve a social innovation problem within their municipality. I was honoured to be a judge for the 2023 competition alongside key stakeholders across the private and public sector, who were all passionate about improving the city.
Our private sector must also take the lead in driving positive societal outcomes. Tech giant Atlassian’s “Pledge 1%” initiative is a blueprint for how to do this. Atlassian uses its powerful brand equity and sizable resources to inspire a movement towards early-stage corporate philanthropy.
No matter our position within the social innovation ecosystem or the metrics by which we’re assessed, it’s crucial to maintain an open door for collaboration. This applies whether on a national level or within our collective business community, so that the next stage of our evolution is defined by how we succeeded together and not by how we failed on our own.
Dickie Currer is the Co-National Lead of Tech Australia Advocates, a grassroots community supporting the growth of the Australian Innovation ecosystem. He is also the Founder of Startup Vagabond, exploring Global Innovation trends through content creation. Follow him on LinkedIn.
