Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for raising this matter. It's an issue I myself am particularly passionate about. AI is here and it is rapidly changing how we work, what we see, how we engage online and what future tech advances and economic opportunities can look like. Our Labor government seeks to take every opportunity to ensure that we can shape this revolution on our own terms rather than on someone else's. We will always back team Australia, and that's exactly why we've already got a plan on the table.

We know this is ours to get right, and getting it right means listening to the people it affects. Plenty of people are uneasy about AI, and I appreciate why. They are worried about their jobs. They are worried about having these enormous companies on the other side of the world calling all the shots. They worry about knowing what's real, what's genuine and what's artificial, what's mis- or disinformation. These are fair and genuine concerns, and some of what the critics say is true. But I don't talk AI down, because the opportunities are just as real. We can build this industry instead of rent it, and barely a country on Earth is better placed to do it than Australia. We have the land, we have the natural resources, we have the researchers and 1,500 AI startups already at it. So our job is to be straight about both and drive what is in the best interest of Australians.

What people feel first is what is happening in their suburbs. Data centres are significant industrial operations going up where people live, near schools and near homes in places like mine. We've seen overseas, in parts of the US, how badly this can go when it is rushed. Sites are thrown up fast, soaking up enormous amounts of resources, and working people are left to foot the bill. Well, I'm not having that here, and neither is our government.

The people in my community have every right to expect that the project down the road will not push up their power bills or take their water. That's why, back in March, our government set out five clear expectations for anyone who wants to build them here. We are doing the work with the state and local governments to set in these frameworks. On energy, we're acting to make them an asset to our energy grid, not something that puts a strain on it. If a data centre wants to benefit from Australia's energy grid, then it must pay its full share of the network infrastructure costs, to ensure those are not passed on to consumers or businesses, and provide demand flexibility and cooperate with market operators to strengthen the energy grid. On top of that, they must look after their water.

We're not doing this without listening to our communities. Our plan is backed by the ACTU, the Smart Energy Council and the Water Services Association of Australia, who are key leaders in their fields. As I said, AI is here, and we should do everything we can, in terms of the data centres that are required, to ensure that they are built in our interests. That's why energy ministers met in May. They're back at it next month, and the water ministers are sitting down in August to lock it down with the rest of the states. For me, the real test is pretty simple. As AI grows, who's better off? That's why we are already expecting companies to open up computing power to Australian startups and to work with our researchers, because we absolutely want to back in Australian innovation as part of this tech revolution. We want them training Australians and giving our kids a way into skilled, well-paid jobs.

We're not only chasing the upside; we're acting on those worries I raised at the start too. That's why we launched the AI Safety Institute—to test the systems and to make sure the rules around this technology are written here and are in our national interest.

In the end, it comes down to a choice. We can be a country that buys its intelligence off the shelf from somewhere else and rents it forever, or we can be a country that builds the thing, owns it and trains our people to run it—shaped around our values, not somebody else's. I know which one I want for the kids growing up in my community. I don't want them to be tenants in someone else's future. I want them owning a piece of their own. That's why this government is getting in early and doing it properly on Australia's terms and in our national interest.

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