Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the rapid changes artificial intelligence (AI) is driving across Australian workplaces, including:

(a) automation of routine tasks;

(b) augmenting jobs and increasing productivity;

(c) creating new jobs and skill sets; and

(d) workplace restructuring and business changes;

(2) notes that the Government has not developed an AI transition plan for Australian workers adversely affected by workplace restructuring and business changes, meaning the Government is silent on how Australians who lose their job because of AI will be supported or transitioned to another industry;

(3) recognises that conflict and tension between Government ministers and members is causing:

(a) AI policy inertia and delays;

(b) uncertainty for business to invest in AI technology; and

(c) serious unknowns for Australian workers impacted by potential workplace changes;

(4) further notes that after the Government won the 2025 election, it suddenly scrapped an expert AI advisory body after spending 15 months and $188,000 finding experts to join it; and

(5) calls upon the Government to resolve its internal conflicts and act now so Australian businesses, workers, and investors have certainty and clarity over Australia's AI policy direction.

There's a great saying: if you don't have a destination, any path will get you there. Unfortunately, that saying sums up the Albanese Labor government when it comes to artificial intelligence—no destination, no plan. Even worse, they had a destination that wasn't a destination that Minister Husic was taking them under, and then when Minister Husic got rolled the destination changed again. So now industry is left with a world with no certainty, no destination and changing priorities depending on the minister's whim. They rightly wonder what happens. To use the words of then minister Husic and still the member for Chifley, if the factional assassins come for Minister Ayres, does Assistant Minister Charlton get promoted? Does he take it in a different direction? Industry has no certainty. They've seen this play out over four years under this government.

Let's understand, when it comes to artificial intelligence, how important this transformation is for our society. While the technology is new, the transformation is not unprecedented. Society has gone through big technological changes before—the printing press, electricity, the internet, smartphones and social media just to name a few. So it's a question for government of how they capture the upside but make sure that they mitigate the downside, and providing that certainty not just for businesses to invest but also for workers is so crucial.

We have seen silence from this government when it comes to workers and how they will support them. Undoubtedly, they are waiting to get their marching orders from the unions on how they will look after communities when it comes to AI. We saw this play out in the last term of parliament when it came to industrial relations. We saw outsourcing to the unions resulting in productivity—less than a five per cent—decline under this government, productivity going backwards significantly. But they needed an action plan through microcredentials, through training people today. In these ways they can protect people, because we are seeing jobs being lost today.

Those opposite will look to spin and look to talk about how they actually have a plan and they are doing things when it comes to AI. I have no doubt they're going to reference the plan that they announced in December, and I look forward to hearing the references. They won't talk about how, within that plan, there was no framework. There were no real actions. There was talk about more conversations. Even worse than that, those opposite will potentially talk about the AI accelerator fund. They will talk about the money they're spending in the AI accelerator fund and how that is going to help businesses invest in artificial intelligence and our community take advantage of it. But that is a false claim by this government, because that fund does not provide money to industry until 2028. The one plan, the one idea, this government has to support artificial intelligence is to provide industry with funding in 2028—two years away. That is a lifetime when it comes to investment decisions and to artificial intelligence. We are seeing the changes move so quickly.

We know that this government has no plan and that all its ideas are talk. We know how bad it is because the member for Chifley—a member of this government and the former minister in this area—has consistently and publicly criticised this government when it comes to failures in artificial intelligence. The Prime Minister talks about how unified they are, how supportive they are, but what does it say that a member of his own government is prepared to take the risk to publicly come out and criticise this government? We all know what happens to those on the ALP side when they criticise the government. Senator Payman is a living example of that.

This government's own members admit it has failed when it comes to AI, and this is a technological revolution that will impact every Australian. It is one that we need to get right. There are so many opportunities to drive productivity, to drive economic growth and to improve our communities, but there is downside risk. We cannot afford to have a government that is asleep at the wheel, sending us in two different directions, then flipping those directions and flipping them again—providing no certainty for businesses, no certainty for the community and no certainty for the workers of Australia.

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