Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the opportunities generative artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the Australian economy;

(2) notes the AI driven productivity and innovation boosts already occurring in Australian businesses and households;

(3) further acknowledges Australia's global AI competitive advantage and the risks associated with not grasping our AI opportunities; and

(4) further notes the speed at which AI technology is developing, and that Government must keep up with community expectations by ensuring Australians have access to reliable AI technologies domestically and that their governments create efficiencies by embracing new technologies such as AI as they develop.

This motion is an important one because technology has a core responsibility and opportunity to solve many of the challenges that we face. In many ways, the private sector is leading when it comes to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence can solve many of these challenges, including productivity, which is down over five per cent since the Albanese Labor government came to power in 2022. If you want to deliver sustainable economic growth, sustainable wages growth and opportunities, you need to have strong productivity growth within our economy. Businesses want to invest and they are investing. However, I speak to so many in the tech sector and in all business, because AI impacts all through every business, and they need certainty. They want certainty. They are frustrated and they are angry because there is a government—the Albanese Labor government—missing in action.

Business is not sure how to invest or where to invest without knowing the rules of engagement. For three years this government has been silent when it comes to AI. They released the Supporting responsible AI: discussion paper. It took 18 months for that release to then become a next step. The next step was more consultation. We are three years in with no certainty. The then minister for industry and science has been knifed by, in his own words, 'factional assassins' of the Deputy Prime Minister, and we have a new minister for industry and science who is now trying to get up to speed, but days and weeks and months cost for our businesses. We need to have that clear direction. We need to acknowledge that there is risk, but we need to make sure we mitigate that risk with guardrails. We need to understand that, because of the speed at which it moves, we cannot outregulate and outlegislate technology. Guardrails give that certainty to business so they can invest.

Let's understand some of the opportunities. Let's look at the public sector. At a time when the budget, as the Treasury's leaked report has shown, has deficits as far as the eye can see, we need to make sure that we spend taxpayer money well. We need to make sure that the Public Service is delivering really well for our communities. The Public Service used Microsoft Copilot as a trial for artificial intelligence to see some of the benefits they could gain. The post-trial survey showed that 69 per cent of those who undertook that trial agreed that it improved the speed of completing tasks, and 61 per cent agreed that it improved work quality. That's just one example of many of how, with a dedicated strategy for our Public Service, we can deliver better value for the taxpayer and, most importantly, better value for those that rely on services like Services Australia, the NDIS and many others.

Just last week, a survey of 2,300 people showed that AI in the workplace had an 88 per cent increase in ROI for those that were using that platform. Ninety-six per cent saved time, and 94 per cent increased productivity within their company. This is what businesses are doing in Australia today, with the government missing in action. Imagine what can be achieved for the Australian economy and for businesses with a bit of direction from this government.

But it's not just about the economic benefits. Annalise.ai is an amazing AI company that I've spoken about previously. It is using artificial intelligence to support radiologists to make sure they can look at scans; there are reports of AI technology finding tumours in lungs that the human eye cannot see. It also triages thousands and thousands of scans to make sure that the radiologists are spending their time looking at the high-risk patients. This is another example of improving outcomes for Australians, ensuring that the people using AI are not taken out of the loop but that their valuable skills and their valuable time are put towards delivering better outcomes for the Australian people.

There is no other technology that exists today that can solve so many challenges that we face. We bring this motion because this government is completely missing on AI, except for the Treasurer putting a buzzword in a speech every second day.

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