AI may have collapsed the time it takes to build a software startup. But it hasn’t yet collapsed the time it takes to build a rocket, sequence a genome, develop a radiopharmaceutical or prove out a quantum chip.
That’s why the Albanese government’s proposed limit on the refundable R&D tax incentive (RDTI) to firms less than 10 years old has sparked so much angst in biotech and deep tech circles.
As Capital Brief reported this week, the change was buried in two lines in the budget papers. It means companies that can spend decades on R&D before generating revenue will lose access to the scheme at precisely the point their work — and their costs — are hitting their stride.
The implications for frontier tech are real and cut to the heart of what it actually takes to build sovereign capability.
