MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Ms MASCARENHAS (Swan) (15:54): It is predicted that artificial intelligence will transform the economy more than the Industrial Revolution did. This is where I'll agree with those opposite, that there is promise and there is peril as well. But I will point out that the Albanese Labor government is indeed acting.

We have already established the new Office for AI inside of PM&C. We have published the expectations of data centres and AI infrastructure developers, and we've also announced mandatory standards for AI. Also, the parliament itself is stepping up to the plate.

We have a new bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which will be chaired by the member for Maribyrnong, and the deputy chair is Senator Duniam. I think that they'll be, actually, a dream team, and I'm looking forward to also being on this committee with the member for Curtin to do a real deep dive into these issues, to make sure that we get the legislation right.

This committee is looking at everything, from the opportunities AI presents for our economy and our regions to the risk that it poses to workers, children and our national security. The government and members right across this parliament are actively engaging with policy questions that are generation-defining and making sure that we get investment right. AI is fast becoming a part of the infrastructure of our everyday lives the way that electricity or the internet changed our societies.

But the promise of AI being everywhere does not mean that we accept that it's inevitable or on someone else's terms. Industry wants us to move, and the commentary swings between responses and actions of being too slow and being too fast. The Albanese Labor government is moving fast enough to lead and carefully get this right.

We have seen what happens when countries rush to win the race without actually doing the work first. In the United States, recent polling found some interesting facts. People are now less willing to have a data centre built in their neighbourhood than a nuclear power plant.

That's how quickly public trust can be lost when communities feel left behind by the change. We're going to make sure that that will not be Australia's story. Coming from WA, I know what social licence means in practice.

It's something that companies must earn and maintain, and, if you're not careful, it can be lost. Mining companies have learnt this, and—I'm not going to say that they get it right all of the time—this is something they're actively working on. You know what?

Building trust in the community is fundamentally about whether you can maintain your social licence. AI companies and governments are entering into the same era. As the Prime Minister put it, this is a world-leading framework, and it's about Australia choosing to shape the future, rather than letting the future of AI shape us.

A single national framework means that every part of government is working to the same standard and the same outcome. Rather than trying to fix a rule for every possible scenario, the aim is to build a framework that can evolve as technology evolves and to respond to new problems as they emerge rather than rectify these years later. That adaptability itself is a part of earning trust.

It shows people that their governments can stay on top of this technology, not just chase it. AI has moved into our social media faster than almost anywhere else from parts of our economy, and this is where it came with a new disturbing harm—AI generated 'nudify' apps creating sexually explicit deepfake images of real people, including children, in seconds. This is exactly the kind of fast-emerging risk that AI poses.

Australia was world leading in its response. This year, the eSafety Commissioner issued formal directions under our age restricted material codes and forced major nudify services out of the Australian market entirely, protecting young Australians, who are the people who need it most. We can also look to examples of best practice that already exist within our communities.

For example, in my own electorate of Swan, we have the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre. It has solar panels on top and solar panels on the side, it uses underground aquifers, and it's beautiful. So what I'd say is that we're wanting to make sure that we lead and we want to make sure that we do this in a smart way.

And that's exactly what this government's doing.