Sen. Andrew Bragg, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology, is also pushing for Australia to bolster its fintech job market as the county faces its first recession in three decades. The committee is in the midst of considering 32 separate fintech-related measures as it prepares to a release a final report on the matter sometime in April 2021.
“As Australia faces its first recession in 30 years, it’s clear we need more jobs and the only way to do that is to embrace technology and become globally competitive,” said Bragg, in a statement. “It is my hope this interim report can be seen as a series of quick wins: new jobs and more choice… More jobs and better consumer choice will emerge if we are competitive and iterative in our approach to policy formulation.”
Per the interim report, blockchain technology stands to play a major role in any fintech efforts moving forward. It cites a prognostication from Michael Bacina, a partner at Piper Alderman, who said he expects the majority of fintech and regtech projects to be built on distributed ledger technology—the foundation of blockchain technology—within the next ten years.
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Bragg said more fintech competition will, ultimately, benefit Australia’s job market, especially as the world adapts to a post-COVID-19 economy. He noted, though, there are several obstacles in the way of that goal. Access to capital, culture and regulation are among those he specifically pointed out.
“The fundamental need to be competitive is the same as it was before the pandemic. The need for reform is now more acute because we are in a recession and competing globally for new investment,” he said. “This means looking again at the big levers such as company and personal taxation as well as industrial relations.”
The committee’s report (PDF) emphasizes the importance of innovating in the sector and applying it to a wide breadth of areas. Agriculture, export and regtech are a few such areas that would benefit from a push toward more fintech competition. It covered recommendations spanning tax incentives and policy, competition, funding and job readiness.
“Every day Australia is competing for the best ideas, best people and for the capital needed to create the next wave of jobs and widen consumer choices,” according to the interim report. “If we are going to compete with Singapore and Tokyo, we first need to get our house in order at home. Much progress has been made but it’s time for some recalibration.”
