A few weeks back I blogged about the perceived implementation delays surrounding Minister Kim Carr’s 18th March 2009 announcement of up to $83 million to early stage companies who have been “starved of funds due to the global financial crisis”.

Its coming up to three months since the announcement date, and it appears that neither the Minister nor the licensed venture capital fund managers have any specific knowledge on when and how the program will be initiated, much less on when the funding will actually flow to qualifying companies.

The Minister’s own press release said this funding was critical: “If we lose these innovative companies we will never get them back”.

A stated benefit of the fund was that “making money available will boost confidence and help shake loose additional private sector capital”. It stands to reason therefore that by not implementing the so-called Innovation Investment Follow-on Fund (IIFF) we will lose companies, we will lose those (apparently valued by the Minister) “high-skill, high-wage” jobs.

So where is the Australian media on this? If Apple, or another US multinational so much as hinted of a new product, and then delayed the launch, Australian business and technology journalists would be wailing about the wait each day.

C’mon folks – you know who you are. How about asking a few questions for the sake of Australian Innovation?