Australia ranked 61/63 countries for entrepreneurship

I was surprised by how terrible NBN is, and how expensive/rare fiber internet is in Sydney. People commonly complain how bad internet access is in the US, but at least the major cities have access to fiber...

I think as an Australian, it's a bit of each.

There is not a great tradition amongst most Australians of trying to "Make it Big.". The Australian dream has been the house on the 1/4 acre block, not making millions in a Silicon Valley style buyout. Add to that the poor regard for those who are seen to be exploiting others for their personal gain and a strong dose of "Tall Poppy Syndrome" where the populous tries to tear down people who seem to be getting too big for their boots and you have a place where American style entrepreneurism is not encouraged.

That said, we tend to celebrate those who step ahead in business, but do it in a way that supports their workers and community.

Almost 95% of Sydney has fiber thanks to the NBN? (FTTN or better)

All three.

Culturally, tall poppy syndrome prevents successful people from showing their success, and it is seen as a massive problem to fail. These two things alone make up a pretty chilling force.

You have few good local VCs (though maybe I'm out of the loop), a tiny stock market that doesn't "get" tech and a high cost of living/wage expectation.

At a policy level our economy's geared to property so what money there is goes there, a panel system for government which results in big overseas cos getting a huge edge and general low grade corruption/nepotism which makes the playing field less even.

It’s worth noting many of these metrics are measuring the quality 4-5 years ago, and I think its improving relatively quickly.

That said, the quality of internet is such a silly metric. Almost all places, including rural Australia, have better than 25/15 with metro areas having fiber due to the NBN rollout. That really is not our limiting factor - our culture and generally small funding amounts is.