The lack of investment in anything forward-looking that has the ability to boost capability in the digital economy is deflating and in stark contrast to what we saw delivered the Australian Federal Budget earlier this month.

We are unlikely to see similar growth-orientated tech and digital initiatives this year, not that the National Party, which owns most of the tech-related policy, isn’t interested in spending on tech, which it sees as an economic growth enabler.

Australia faces many of the problems we do at the moment, but is fundamentally a wealthier country, which is why the last few budgets there have seen left and right-leaning governments alike make some big investments in tech and knowledge economy initiatives they hope will lift salaries and high value exports in the longrun.