Sky News First Edition

Subjects: Podcast comments; Australia-Fiji relationship; AI regulation. 06 July 2026 Alex Thomas, Host : Let's speak to Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite and Shadow Assistant Minister for Women Maria Kovacic, who join us live now. Maria, can I just start with you about that breaking news over Anthony Albanese. How big an error of judgement do you think it was?

Maria Kovacic, Liberal Senator for NSW : I think it's a pretty poor judgement, to be honest. And good morning, Alex. Thank you for having me.

I don't think anybody has woken up this morning and thought that's a good look, either for the Prime Minister or for our country. And there are so many more important things that we should be talking about, including the state of our economy, the fact that small businesses are being crushed, that young Australians are priced out of homes. We have so many problems.

And I think that demonstrates just a lack of judgement and understanding of what Australia needs right now. : Slightly ambushed by the female comedian who was running the podcast? : Look, I don't think so, but, I mean, I can't speak for the Prime Minister. I think, you know, we all do this job and it has its, you know, difficult times when you ask questions that are uncomfortable, but you need to answer those in ways that are authentic to you.

I think it's right that the Prime Minister has apologised, but it does show, in my view, a lack of judgement on his part in relation to that. : Matt, Anthony Albanese is now in Fiji. What will his focus there be? Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade : Well, obviously the Prime Minister is in Fiji to try and negotiate the Vuvale treaty with Fiji.

Our government's been committed, Alex, to trying to restrengthen relationships with our Pacific neighbours. We've seen the Falepili Union being put in place. We've seen the Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea a couple of weeks ago, the Vuvale treaty [Nakamal Agreement] with Vanuatu, and now we're moving on to strengthen relations with Fiji.

We certainly agree with the comments of the Fijian Prime Minister Rabuka, who was in Australia and gave a speech at the Press Club, where he said that the one Blue Pacific is the notion of Pacific Islands, foreign nations, finding their collective security and policing and peace by working together within the Pacific, so that we work together and we find our collective security together.

And that's a principle that we agree with and that's what we're doing with these agreements with our Pacific neighbours to uphold our peace and security in the region through those agreements. : And domestically, newspapers reporting that Labor is planning to announce increased regulation of AI at its party conference this month. It's thought this was a concession to union concerns about the future of Australian workers.

Maria, what do you make of that? : Well, I think it's pretty consistent with what this government has done to date. Most of what they do are concessions to the union movement. We have seen some radical IR changes.

We've seen the prevalence of the ongoing corruption and criminal conduct in the CFMEU, which the government allows to continue. And now, effectively, we have the conference on the weekend getting a pretty different position to what Minister Rishworth had prior and actually saying, well, we actually want a veto on what you can do. So, they're basically saying to Australian businesses, we're going to tell you what kind of technology and software you can use.

I don't think that's quite right. There obviously have to be frameworks around AI. Of course, there are many opportunities, but there are risks that need to be assessed.

Government should then be working through those with stakeholders, which would perhaps include the union movement, but would absolutely also include businesses. To say that the union movement would have a veto on this is a significant problem, but it signals where this government is getting its direction from. This government is getting its direction from their organisational wing, which is the union movement, including the CFMEU. : Yeah, Matt, that was also an accusation from the deputy Liberal leader, Jane Hume on this show about an hour ago.

What's your response? Assistant Minister : Well, we've got an AI strategy that welcomes investment in artificial intelligence and data centres in Australia. We want Australia to be the hub for these sort of investments in Southeast Asia.

But AI platforms shouldn't be able to steal the intellectual property of Australian artists, journalists and writers without paying fair compensation for the use of that intellectual property and content. And our policy ensures that Australian artists receive fair compensation for their content. It's also about -- : We're in agreement on that.

We have no question in relation to the protection of those rights of Australian creatives. But the issue here is that the union movement is seeking a veto. They're not seeking to protect Australian small businesses like Australian writers, Australian comedians, Australian musicians or Australian journalists.

They're looking to say this is what you can use and this is what you can't use. You know, that's my understanding. I'm happy to be corrected.

But that's clearly the pitch from the weekend. This is more power to the union movement and away from Australian businesses, particularly when Australian small businesses are being totally crushed by the policies and the actions of the Albanese Labor government. Assistant Minister : We've got an AI policy that ensures that Australian content is protected.

At the same time, when there are major changes in a workplace, for instance, the introduction of artificial intelligence that sees the loss of a lot of jobs, let's say it's in administrative work in a white collar sector or something like that, then if a company is seeking to introduce that artificial intelligence and there will be job losses, then there's a requirement for that business to consult with the workers about those changes and their union.

That is the Australian law under our workplace relations system. : Of course. Assistant Minister : And I think that all Australians would expect -- : I don't have an issue with consultation with workers. I have an issue when the only consultation this government does is the union movement.

Assistant Minister : Consult with their workers and their unions when they make major changes, that sees the loss of jobs. And that is what this policy reinforces. It's simple as that. : Okay, Matt Thistlethwaite, Maria Kovacic.

We've run out of time. Thank you both for appearing on Sky.