Tax breaks and new protection for board directors have topped a wish list drawn up by Australian startups for Innovation Minster Christopher Pyne.
Representatives from StartupAUS, the peak industry body for startups and entrepreneurs, have met with Mr Pyne to discuss what support the government can give the sector.
StartupAUS chief executive Peter Bradd said Mr Pyne was presented with three key policy ideas the government could implement before the next election, due in 2016.
They include income and capital gains tax breaks for angel investors, doubling the amount of research tax funds for tech businesses, and extending the mining sector's director liability exemptions to startups.
Mr Bradd said the newly installed minister welcomed the idea of overhauling the Research and Development Tax Credit program to shift more funds from large corporations to small startups.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
It's a move already endorsed by Google Australia, Mr Bradd told AAP.
"Every year it's billions of dollars the government is spending and it's working right, but we agree and he agrees that we could make it better.
"We just want to improve it and he's looking at how he can reallocate that money and make it more efficient and effective."
StartupAUS also urged Mr Pyne to bring in tax reforms specifically targeted at getting more wealthy Australians to invest in tech businesses as angel investors.
Also on the wishlist was the idea of extending directors liability exemptions found in the mining sector to tech startups to provide a financial safety net in case a company collapses.
"The directors guarantee policy goes hand in hand with angel investors. If we want partners at law firms and top companies and the like to get their feet on the board of tech companies, we need to remove the liability and make it acceptable," Mr Bradd said.
"(My Pyne)was probably the most excited about that one because he hadn't heard of that idea before."
Mr Pyne's meeting with StartupAUS comes ahead of the government's policy hackathon on Saturday at Sydney startup accelerator BlueChilli.
The brainchild of Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy, the one-day workshop between government and industry aims to deliver policy ideas for the government's national innovation agenda.
