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

As we reach the end of the parliamentary year, I stand to express my profound gratitude to the Canberrans and members of the Australian community who make my work possible. As a community backed Independent, I'm continually humbled by the volunteers who show up to protect and grow the independent, community-driven politics we have fought for together: Chris, Grace, Sally, Bobby, Geoff, Dolores, Robin, Jill, Warwick, Maddie, Lea, Denise, Hal and Maya, who provide invaluable support to me and my team: Laurie, Crystal, Jodie, Mel, John, Susan, Dain, Craig, Inger, Adrienne, Sue, Marianne, Alma, Margaret, Nicole, Lisa and our booth captains, whose leadership and coordination throughout the election campaign ensured every volunteer felt supported; the more than 1,000 volunteers who gave their time on pre-poll or election-day booths, assisted at events and stalls, made calls, coordinated activities, put up corflutes, doorknocked, letterboxed, wore a Team Pocock T-shirt or simply had a conversation about independent politics; and the many more Canberrans who hosted corflutes, attended an event or showed up to vote Independent.

I'd also like to thank every Canberran who gives their time, skills and energy to causes they care about, including our 2026 ACT Australians of the Year, Professor Rose McGready, Heather Reid AM, Sita Sargeant and Ben Alexander. Thank you for your service to our community. To all the essential workers who keep our community going: thank you.

Finally, I want to convey my deep gratitude and that of my team to the unsung heroes of our parliamentary community: Maria, the cleaning staff and the amazing staff who work in the grounds here and make our spaces so beautiful; the diligent Hansard staff, who are the backbone of our parliamentary record; the broadcasting staff, who exemplify open democracy; the catering staff, who keep us well fed to serve our communities; the event staff, who help us host our communities here on the hill; the security guards, for your dedication and good humour; the library staff, for your expert advice; the Parliamentary Education Office, who showcase our democracy to the next generation; the chamber attendants, clerks, secretariat staff and staff in the Procedure and Table offices, for your guidance, maintenance of order and support of the smooth operation of this place; and the Black Rod and the staff in his office, who create the environment for debate and deliberation. All of you are often unseen, but you are absolutely indispensable.

It's an honour and a privilege to represent a community I love here in the ACT. Thank you for placing your trust in me.

On the topic of trust, I want to make some brief remarks on two other key topics. The first is on the Australian Public Service. During the last election, the APS was under threat. The coalition was promising to cut 41,000 APS jobs. Labor rightly railed against this. I railed against this. We saw others on the crossbench rail against this attack on the Public Service. But now there are reports that Labor is planning to slash APS budgets by as much as five per cent in one year. Neither the Minister for Finance nor the Treasurer has outright denied these reports. Instead, they're talking about fiscal discipline. Where have we heard those words before? 'We have demonstrated fiscal discipline in this budget,' Mathias Cormann said in 2016. 'We will continue to ensure fiscal discipline,' Scott Morrison said in 2020. At the same time, despite Labor promising to reduce reliance on consultants, it seems expenditure on consultants has actually increased. According to AusTender, consultancy spend jumped by almost $200 million from 2023 to 2024-25. Whether it's through job losses or cuts to programs, I am deeply concerned about these reports of cuts to Australian Public Service budgets and call on the government to categorically rule out further harm to the Public Service, particularly to smaller agencies, who have no fat to trim and who simply cannot cope with these sorts of cuts.

Talking about harm brings me to artificial intelligence and the reports today that the government is going to adopt a light-touch approach to AI regulation and abandon plans for a national AI safety act. This flies in the face of the advice from expert groups and the year-long consultation done in the last term of parliament. It's a total departure from what countries in Europe are doing. It's poor policymaking, and it's going to leave Australians exposed. AI is going to touch every aspect of our lives; we can't afford regulatory and legislative loopholes. We need guardrails in place. We need an overarching AI safety act. The national AI safety centre announced this week in response to pressure from the crossbench—including those in the other place, such as the member for Curtin, Kate Chaney—is very welcome, but it lacks detail and does nothing to bring Australia's legislative framework up to speed to deal with AI, both the threats and the opportunities. That's why members of the crossbench, like me, like Kate Chaney and like the member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, are stepping up with our own legislation to try and fill these gaps and spur the government into action.

But don't just take it from me. Listen to the experts. Geoffrey Hinton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024, when talking about AI, said: 'The risks include things like replacing lots of jobs and causing an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, because, when productivity increases using AI, it's not shared equally. Some people lose their jobs, and others get rich. Another kind of risk is fake videos, where they corrupt elections. They're already doing that.' He goes on to mention cyberattacks, discrimination and bias and talks about the longer term problem about what's going to happen when we create beings more intelligent than us. Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at Berkeley, sums it up: 'We need to recognise the possibility that not only may the bus of humanity be heading towards a cliff but the steering wheel is missing and the driver is blindfolded.' I urge the Albanese government, when it comes to AI, to take the blindfold off and grab the steering wheel, because we need you to do this.

As we go into the fire season, I want to thank the many fire and emergency services across this country, who put their lives on the line for their fellow citizens and for communities across this country. Many of them are volunteers. I want to remind the parliament about our duty of care on climate. We're currently failing on that. We are failing young people and future generations, and, in fact, not that long ago, in this place, the Liberals, the Nationals and the Labor Party voted against a duty of care on climate. We remember Scott Morrison, when young people and students were striking, trying to raise concerns about climate change, saying:

… what we want is more learning in schools and less activism in schools.

If you turn on the news today, there are now 25 schools shut in New South Wales due to fire danger.

We have to act in this place. We have to say, 'Yes, we have a duty of care to young people and future generations.' I don't understand how the Labor Party is so out of step with their rank-and-file members and with the people across this country who voted for Labor at the last election. In polling I commissioned in WA, 90 per cent of Labor voters supported a duty of care on climate. It's so sensible. We understand that we send people here to Canberra to make decisions that are good for our futures across the country. As we head into fire season, we're seeing lives already being lost, schools being shut and infrastructure under threat. This is not the new normal. This is only going to get worse until we see the kind of action that actually aligns with a safe future, when we see the Australian government taking some leadership, having science based targets and getting onto the world stage at every opportunity. The PM didn't even bother going to COP this year. We need to be there, pushing the bigger emitters on climate. I urge my colleagues in the Senate and those in the other place: this is urgent. Let's come back next year and actually get cracking.