COMMITTEES

Ms CHANEY (Curtin) (09:37): I firstly would like to thank the members for Canning and Casey and people in the government and, indeed, across the parliament for their constructive engagement on the establishment of this committee. I think what we see here is that the issue of AI is bigger than our ideological differences. It has huge impacts for our economy and our society and so it makes sense that we have some parliamentary oversight to shepherd how this progresses.

There is so much uncertainty with how AI will actually change our economy and our society. It is very fast-moving, so one of the things that we are going to need to do is make sure that we have institutions and structures that can react to the speed of change in AI. I think this select committee is a good first step in identifying the productivity opportunities, the important role that Australia could play in this and making sure that we protect our sovereignty.

As well as getting the structures right and making the most of the opportunities, we need to ensure that the benefits of AI are shared broadly. I think that will be an important part of this discussion. We need to make sure we have the guardrails up for both existing harms and emerging harms so that we can make the most of those opportunities.

So I look forward to seeing this committee playing a really important role in navigating the uncertainty and also excitement ahead as we see how AI continues to change the world that we live in. I commend the government for proposing this joint select committee. Question agreed to.