The federal government must quadruple funding to its innovation procurement program and establish a public sector accelerator to bring down the walls around government contracts for smaller firms, according to the tech sector’s lobby group.
In a submission to the current inquiry into developing the local sector, the Tech Council of Australia says under qualified and risk averse procurement officials combined with red tape and structural barriers are locking tech SMEs out of federal contracts.
It wants more training and tweaks to the rules, but is also calling for new and much larger innovation initiatives to build a pipeline of smaller tech suppliers.
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