“No one wants to move to Australia” : Tech Giant
http://www.whocrashedtheeconomy.com.au/blog/category/australian-housing/
Written by admin on March 16, 2016 – 6:48 pm
In his victory speech, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Australia of the future has to be a nation that
is agile, innovative and creative.
But founder of Australia’s largest tech company, Mike Cannon-Brookes, claims Australia is too expensive.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, a founder of Nasdaq listed software company Atlassian, headquartered in Sydney, is
having trouble attracting good staff to its Sydney offices. Australia’s high cost of housing, transport and
education was a significant obstacle in attracting software engineers and senior developers.
Cannon-Brookes explained to the Australian Financial Review Business Summit, “We’re trying to pull the best
talent out of [Silicon] Valley. A lot of those guys and girls have four other options down the street, so how am I
going to convince them to move to Sydney?” http://www.afr.com/technology/afr-business-summit-business-urged-to-be-more-bold-20160315-gnj6bq
Junior staff were easier to attract as they were young, single and adventurous. But for senior staff, Sydney was
too expensive to establish a family and settle down.
“So, whatever we can do to change that cost of living would make a big difference,” claimed Cannon-Brookes.
Sydney house prices have surged 50 per cent in just three years, sending Australia’s total real estate assets to
GDP upwards to 3.8 times. This is higher than experienced at the peak of the Ireland and Japan housing
bubbles. Australia now have the highest level of household debt to household disposable income in the world.
Australia is expected to lose more jobs and opportunities as it prices itself out of the global market.
» ‘Nobody wants to move to Australia’: Tech billionaire founder of Atlassian says he can’t attract foreign talent
because housing, transport and education are all too expensive – Daily Mail, 16th March 2016