Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has called on the government to lower the cost of living for skilled foreign technology workers, as he warned that Australia risked becoming an unattractive location for fast growing companies to do business.
The co-chief executive of Australia's technology darling, which listed on the NASDAQ last year told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit 2016, that while it was vital to create an education system with strong science, maths and technology skills for the longer term, the country needed to become cheaper for workers on 457 visas in the present. 
"We can't change our distance, we can't make the Pacific Ocean smaller, we can't make planes fly any faster without hiring lots of really smart people .. But we need to reduce the cost of living for someone who is looking at job opportunities all around the world," Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
"The further they move up the chain, it gets progressively harder for us to bring them in and you can't build an industry of just junior folk."
Atlassian employs about a quarter of its Sydney workforce on 457 visas, but Mr Cannon-Brookes said experienced technology professionals were deterred from relocating Down Under by the excessive price of moving their families.
He highlighted possible initiatives such as bringing back the Living Away From Home Allowance for foreign workers, and a possible tax reduction on food, grocery and rental expenses, as measures to make Australia a more desirable location.
"It's like $15,000 a year for a family with three kids [to go to public school], that's a huge hit .. it hurts our ability to attract talent," he said.
"We're trying to pull the best talent out of [Silicon] Valley. A lot of those guys and girls have four other options down the street, so how am I going to convince them to move to Sydney?"
Since listing in   December with a $6.1 billion valuation, Atlassian shares soared to a high of $US31.31, before being caught up in the volatility surrounding global tech stocks and falling back to between $US22-23.
Despite the bumpy ride, Mr Cannon-Brookes said listing on the NASDAQ gave the company a higher valuation than if the company had gone public locally through the ASX.
"When it comes to technology investors we do not have the most sophisticated investors in the world ..We do not have a good set of comparatives. It's a real struggle to work out how that will change," he said.
"The US certainly has a much higher bar .. If people had the opportunity of both and they're truly building a global company, not a locally-focused Australian company, I would challenge any company owner to choose not to list on a true global exchange. I don't understand why they'd make that choice."
But not all companies agree. On Tuesday Australian marketplace for independent designers, RedBubble, which is backed by venture capital fund Blackbird Ventures, in which Mr Cannon-Brookes is a venture partner, declared its intentions to list on the ASX to raise $50 million.
At the Financial Review's Business Summit, Square Peg Capital co-founder Paul Bassat also said that if the company was listing today it would not matter if it chose the NASDAQ or the ASX.
In 2014 Mr Cannon-Brookes also sparked controversy when told a conference that Australia needed one well-supported start-up hub in Sydney, rather than a few scattered between other cities. He stood by those views on Tuesday and reasserted that it was important to create one centre of innovation because they required a high density of people, knowledge and ideas in one space to thrive.
"The problem we have as a country is that we're so large. If you look at any successful centre of technology they had density of some kind," he said. "I made that point controversially because I think if we spread our investments over a huge space, in lots and lots of cities around the country, the chances of success goes down exponentially."