QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator DAVID POCOCK (Australian Capital Territory—Independent ACT Whip) (15:30): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Special Minister of State (Senator Farrell) to a question without notice I asked today relating to consultation on artificial intelligence, copyright and the government's approach. He said: The terms … include terms regarding the control and the payment … owners in relation to the use of their material … Strong protections for … artists and the media will remain a core … approach … However, information that I have received contradicts this statement.
In fact, information provided to me suggests that the government is consulting on options that significantly weaken protections for creatives and other rights holders. In fact, the government is consulting on the opposite of what we currently have. Under the current laws, content is automatically protected under our copyright laws.
That's the default position. The onus is on AI companies and others to seek permission and make payment to utilise copyright material. Shockingly, despite what the Prime Minister and others have said, the government is seeking to flip that onus.
They want to put the onus on creatives, on artists and on everyday Australians to actively seek to protect their work through a statutory data-training authorisation model, and this model would give AI companies statutory permission to access material on the internet for training purposes. It would mean putting AI companies' interests over those of everyday Australians, giving AI companies access to all Australians' content, unless they opt out and somehow put some sort of label on it to say 'please don't use this for training'.
This would be huge and mean that our legal system would protect AI companies first and Australians second. The burden should not fall on Australians to defend the rights they already hold over content they create and own and invest in. I'm deeply concerned by this, and I seek leave to table screenshots of consultation proposals from the government.
Leave not granted. Senator DAVID POCOCK: Pursuant to contingent notice, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from tabling a document. I'm really concerned, when it comes to these big AI companies, that the government is not only going to go against what they've promised the Australian people—that probably wouldn't be a big surprise to many—but going to throw Australian creatives under the bus, the bus that is the express bus to data centres and the express bus to training AI models here in Australia.
That is something that we should not tolerate as the Senate. Creatives own that intellectual property. That is their property, and we rightly have a copyright system that we should be proud of.
If these companies that come to us and say that they are the most valuable companies in the history of the world and that they have technology that's going to— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Pocock, I'll ask you to resume your seat. I was just getting some advice from the clerk. The time for taking note of answers has expired, so we do need to move on.
You are free to speak to the whips about future events, but we do need to move on now.