$1.1 billion is a significant line in the sand with which to announce that government sanctioned innovation is coming to Australia and Malcolm Turnbull in his Innovation Statement said the words that I’ve waited so long for – Australia is open for business now and in the future.

Comments including our future prosperity will come from above the ground, not below it and a century of ideas are jingoistic, but perhaps they’re the catch phrases we need to begin to shift from a short-term risk averse society to a medium term risk taking society.

The practicalities of 20% tax offsets for investment in early stage investments, capital gains tax exemptions, $520 million for the Australian Synchrotron, $294 million for the Square Kilometre Array, changes to bankruptcy laws, increase emphasis on STEM education and CSIRO becoming the central link of a $200 million fund are all welcome and of course there could be more, but it’s a great start.

It takes an entire ecosystem to raise a start-up and what’s needed now is for the for ideas to flow, for rhetoric to turn into action and for start-ups to start up.

I’d love to see us go a step further and make this new landscape bipartisan, to enshrine direction, funding and bureaucracy in an untouchable bubble that ensures that future Prime Ministers and political parties can’t adversely alter our course, giving the same certainty to Australian start-ups that their Israeli start-up brethren have through an independent apolitical department ensuring 6 year of consistent funding, direction and regulations.

This is a significant first step, but its true importance is not in the funding, it is in the framing.

It establishes a future direction for Australia, one that given what we know of who we are as a nation and what we are capable of and with what we understand tomorrow may require from us and provide to us, seems like a path worth taking.

So now it’s up to us.

Let’s see how quickly and effectively we can grow our start-up nation. Let’s try to avoid the misuse of funding that inevitably results from these schemes.

Let’s challenge ourselves to take this message to the schools and start the innovation conversation early.

Let’s go the universities and cheer on those already running this race.

Let’s visit the garages and lounge rooms of budding entrepreneurs to discover the next big idea and let’s evolve the average Aussie to think bigger and bolder and champion those that do.

All this and more were part of my chat this week with Phil Whelan of Hong Kong radio 3, so have a listen now (14 mins 02 secs) and then add your voice to the discussion.