Australia’s Tech Council funded by a Stable of Unicorns

Afterpay co-founder Anthony Eisen wants Australia to become the “head office for global tech companies” and compete with Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, joining Atlassian boss Scott Farquhar and Tesla chair Robyn Denholm in a push to drive the fast-growing sector above one million jobs by 2025.

The nation’s leading tech companies – including Afterpay, ­Atlassian, Canva, Google Australia, Airtasker and Microsoft Australia – will launch Tech Council of Australia on Wednesday, bringing together tech ­moguls and start-up pioneers to position the country as a ­global hub.

With the industry already pumping $167bn into the economy and employing 861,000 Aus­tralians, fuelled by a 65,000 jobs boom during the pandemic, the Tech Council has set a target of ­increasing economic output to $250bn within a decade.