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.

All of that data we generate in our day-to-day lives is valuable grist to the mill for the tech companies seeking to train their AI systems.

The edtech sector is growing massively. The problem is that we don’t know very much about how effective many edtech apps or programs are – or if they are effective at all. And some effects may be negative.

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.

Now’s a good time to think to the future, to the growth times that will no doubt come, and the tech skills, AI or otherwise, that will help you make the most of them.

Upskilling and reskilling, growing our home grown talent alongside imported talent acquisition - are all needed to grow our sector and improve the productivity of our economy.