The election campaign ignored AI. It's a dangerous blind spot.

What Anish said

On the budget overall, Anish acknowledged some wins but held back full endorsement. Cash flow, loss carry-back, and parts of the R&D incentive landed well. But founder and employee equity is where the real debate sits. His view: if Australia wants people to build ambitious companies, the upside that makes the risk worth taking has to be preserved.

On CGT reform, Anish pointed to Canada's 2024 Budget as a reference point. Even while reforming capital gains, Canada introduced an entrepreneur-specific incentive so successful founders had more after-tax capital to reinvest. His argument: founder equity is high-risk, illiquid, and earned over years of underpaid work. The final CGT settings in Australia need to reflect that.

On R&D, Anish flagged an implementation risk. Narrowing support toward core experimental R&D sounds logical, but in regulated industries like insurance, fintech, and health, product development, compliance, data work, testing, and customer implementation all happen together. If the rules define core R&D too narrowly, they risk excluding exactly the kind of practical innovation Australia should be backing.

Read the full piece

Anish's comments are part of a wider roundup of reactions from Australian founders, investors, and industry leaders.

Read the full article on Capital Brief.

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The information in this article is general in nature and does not constitute financial, legal, or business advice. upcover Pty Ltd ABN 17 628 197 437 is a Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR 1299211) of Experience Insurance Services Pty Ltd ABN 41 657 596 506, AFSL 539078.