Australia’s Assistant Minister for Competition, Andrew Leigh, is consulting startups and universities on ways to keep innovative businesses from relocating abroad, emphasizing the need for better domestic support to foster growth without migration.

Leigh, addressing the Ecosystem Startup Leaders Lunch at the University of Technology Sydney on Wednesday, September 17, 2025, acknowledged Australian founders' ideas and grit but pointed to structural barriers hindering scale-up. 

A recent Australian Computer Society report highlighted that 11,000 startups have left over the past 20 years, citing insufficient support, low R&D investment, and poor adoption of local innovations. Leigh called on universities to shift from "spectators" to "co-founders," advocating for clear intellectual property rules, co-located labs, and bidirectional staff mobility to bridge academia and industry.

He also urged larger firms to increase R&D spending, noting Australia's lag in transitioning prototypes to products. Business leaders, including the Business Council of Australia, have pushed for a standardized 18.5% tax offset without turnover limits and removal of the $150 million cap, while the Australian Academy of Science proposed a levy on firms over $100 million revenue not investing 0.5% in R&D.