VC

The gubment has just announced that they are changing the Golden Visa program.

Previously any $5m investment, farms or bonds or anything, would buy a wealthy Chinese an Australian residency.

Now that $5m investment is going to have to be into Australian venture capital.

This is so Machiavellian that I am disappointed that I didn’t come up with the idea myself.

In truth you’d be better off investing in Opera House lottery tickets than Australian VC, based on past performances.

There have been calls for forcing super funds to invest in Australian VC but that would be politically untenable. You can’t force people to lose money unless of course they are buying something valuable at the same time. Like a visa.

This is brilliant.

One or two things will happen.

First, subversion efforts will come to the fore. VC funds that are fronts for property trusts etc.

Second, someone might figure out how to harness this new sort of LP with it’s Chinese connections as a means to figure out how to do VC here. Probably in unsexy sectors like food and resources.