STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator COX (Western Australia) (12:15): Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the world around us, and it's one of the most significant technological advances in modern history. AI will act as a defining marker for prosperous and secure countries, completely transforming the landscape of competitive advantage. It will draw a clear line between the nations that thrive and those that fall behind.

In capturing those opportunities of AI, our nation is at an existential juncture. It is, in fact, a sliding doors moment. In the first half of 2025, data centres and their computing equipment represented about four per cent of the US economy yet drove an extraordinary 92 per cent of its economic growth.

Without this growth, the economy in the US rounds down to, in fact, zero. There is no longer a question of whether the AI boom will happen. It's happening, it's happening here and it's moving quickly.

The question is whether Australia shapes its future or whether we let the future of AI shape us. Capturing these opportunities cannot mean leaving people behind. We must make sure that the transformation works for everyone, and that is at the heart of the government's National AI Plan.

Our ambition is not simply for Australia to use more AI but to build Australian capability, lifting living standards and making sure this technology develops in line with our interests and our values. We have every reason to be ambitious. We have world-class researchers and innovative Australian businesses, and we have some of the best solar and wind resources on Earth.

We have the land to harness them at scale, and we have skilled tradespersons to turn that potential into power. But natural advantages do not automatically become national prosperity. Australia has learned that lesson before.

A boom can happen on our shores without enough of its value staying here. Investment can flow in while the benefits flow out. If a government waits until the costs are being felt by households and communities, the damage will be much harder to undo.

We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes with AI. This time, Australia must set the terms from the beginning. This means building data centres and computing infrastructure that will power an AI economy while ensuring they contribute to the country that, in fact, hosts them.

I know data centres have become one of the most contested pieces of economic infrastructure around the world. Some see data centres as the engine rooms for our next industrial revolution, the foundations on which Australia can build new industries, new wealth and greater sovereignty. To others they are nothing more than great big warehouses full of computers, drawing heavily on our power grids and water supply, red flags of mistakes made in the past of booms that enriched Australia without always enriching Australians.

Each of those views captures part of the truth, but neither on its own provides a path that serves Australia's national interests. It is our job as a government to see the wood apart from the trees, to hold both sides of the argument as part of our decision-making process, and to make sure that artificial intelligence is in Australia's interests. We have quietly become one of the most attractive destinations in the world for these projects.

We sit in the middle of a Venn diagram that offers a combination of political stability, Five Eyes security and an unrivalled potential for renewable power. To ensure we seize this opportunity while benefiting Australians, our government has set some strong expectations. We expect them to bring their own new renewable power so that they add clean generation rather than compete for what's already there.

We expect them to pay their fair share of transmission and distribution costs so that their costs are not subsidised by the family down the road. And we expect them to provide flexibility with demand to help keep our power grids steady. These expectations make sure that the infrastructure of the AI age is built on Australian terms.

But our responsibility does not end at the doors of a data centre, because most Australians will never step inside one. They encounter what comes out of them, and this in fact will impact on the workplaces and services they rely on and the information they consume—and, increasingly, in the decisions that shape their lives. These are the moments that will determine whether Australians trust AI and whether they believe this transformation is happening with them or simply being done to them.

Australians need to know that embracing AI will not come at the expense of their jobs, their privacy, their safety and, also, their creative work. That is why the rules must keep pace with the technology. If a company puts an AI product into the hands of Australians, it should carry a duty to make sure that that product is safe.

If an AI system relies on our personal information, our privacy laws must be strong enough to protect it. If AI changes an Australian workplace, workers deserve a seat at the table and a voice in how that change happens. If governments use systems to aid in decision-making, those decisions must remain fair, accurate and open to explanation.

That is why the Albanese Labor government is establishing Australian standards for AI, and why we've established an office of AI at the centre of government to drive this implementation. We are moving to legislate a digital duty of care, placing responsibility for safety where it belongs—with the companies who are in fact building these products. Privacy reform is being progressed to strengthen the protection of Australia's personal information.

AI safety is now a national workplace priority, bringing unions, employers and governments together to shape how this technology is introduced. A new framework is being developed for the automated decisions made by federal agencies, and our government is standing up for Australian writers, artists and journalists, whose work should never be taken from them and handed to an algorithm without their control.

Behind all this, the Australian AI Safety Institute will act as an early warning system, testing emerging technology and identifying risks before they spread, often referred to as 'sandboxing', and giving Australians the confidence and trust that someone is looking beyond the promise of what AI can deliver. To the consequences of what happens when it goes wrong: trust is not a barrier to standing in the way of innovation.

Trust is what allows innovation to take root. Without it, Australians will not embrace this technology. Without it, businesses will struggle to adopt it.

Without it, the opportunity sitting before Australia will remain exactly that—an opportunity but not an achievement. In the words of my good friend the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Tim Ayres: The biggest risk from AI may not be adopting it. The biggest risk may be being left behind.