Australia loves unicorns, so why are we taxing go-getters like me, Mr Chalmers?

May 13, 2026 — 3:53pm

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Australia loves a founder story. We revere Canva, Atlassian and Afterpay. We talk about unicorns with awe. We love the garage origin story, the big idea, the brave leap, the company that starts local and goes global. But we are making it harder for the next generation of founders to take that leap at all.

Building a start-up is not just hard work. It is self-belief under pressure. It is creativity, risk and resilience. It is leaving a stable job when everyone else tells you to keep one. Working nights, weekends and public holidays. Going without a meaningful salary for years, using your savings, asking friends and family to back you with money they cannot afford to lose.

Founders don’t just build businesses. They carry the emotional weight of everyone who has believed in them, and backed them with their wallets. And increasingly, they are being forced to ask: for what?

When I represented Australia at the G20 Startup20 engagement group in India, I was struck by the scale of government support available to start-up ecosystems in comparable economies. The contrast with Australia was uncomfortable. We celebrate our founders in retrospect. We do not yet structure policy to back them in the doing.

While Tuesday’s federal budget includes some welcome measures, including reforms to the R&D tax incentive and loss refundability for early-stage companies, the removal of capital gains tax concessions is seismic for........

© The Age