David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science (Senator Ayres) to a question without notice I asked today relating to data centres.

The question was around the statement of expectations that the government has set for data centres, and it goes to the bigger concern amongst the community that the current Labor government is not meeting Australians' expectations when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence and the huge growth in data centres in this country. To simply say that we have a statement of expectations, which one of the largest data CEOs says is essentially just what the current rules are, and to simply whack that on the website and say, 'There is our statement of expectations. We're doing our job,' doesn't cut it.

I know so many experts are concerned and I think people in the broader community are really concerned about a government that seems to be asleep at the wheel when it comes to the AI freight train that is coming at us. You have the Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia saying that 600,000 Australians will likely lose their jobs. There has been no modelling that we know of to actually look at the implications of that in terms of tax and in terms of unemployment.

We have to do better. This is a huge change that is coming at us very fast, and it doesn't cut it for the government to simply say, 'Well, at least we'll have data centres. You know, it's good for the country. We're seeing investment.' Take Microsoft, who have made a $25 billion investment in Australia. As I said yesterday, they paid two per cent tax on revenue here in Australia. These big tech companies are very good at minimising their tax, and they're laying off workers. In the US recently, we saw that 8,750 were laid off. That's seven per cent of their workforce.

What makes us think that investment from these tech companies that results in job losses here in Australia will mean that we win? Everything suggests that we will allow companies to simply displace workers. When you go to Coles, you check out your own groceries. When you go to Qantas, you now check yourself in. AI will displace jobs, and we currently do not have a plan to deal with that, and we do not have a plan to raise the revenue that's going to be required for retraining and, potentially, for mass unemployment.

Question agreed to.