MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr GEE (Calare) (16:07): Make no mistake: artificial intelligence poses a direct threat to the future of humanity. That is why I introduced a groundbreaking bill into parliament recently—the AI Kill Switch and Data Centre Control Bill 2026. I introduced this bill into this place because we must not rush headlong into a technology that we don't even know we can control.
This issue is as serious as nuclear proliferation, and it needs to be treated as such. Sadly, yesterday, when I tried to bring this bill on to debate and also a vote, it was really only the crossbench that stood up, and three coalition MPs, including the Nationals member for Wide Bay, who has always been an independent thinker. But there were no government MPs backing it in, no One Nation MPs and only three coalition MPs.
It's very disappointing. It's all very well to talk about it; it's another thing to actually vote and get something done. Currently, humanity is standing in the middle of an uncontrolled technological race, and the very people building these systems are begging us to put the brakes on.
In just the past week, the public facade of the AI industry has cracked. One Anthropic employee recently publicly stated: … we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.
This is someone working on advanced AI. Basically, it's an admission that the industry does not have any plan to control superintelligent AI. Another Anthropic researcher warned that corporate labs 'are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives'.
Another Anthropic employee recently quit, stating, 'The world is in peril.' Added to that, now Jack Clark, one of the very founders of Anthropic, has publicly stated that we need a mandatory kill switch. That's what my bill brings in—a mandatory kill switch and a shutdown mechanism. These are the people who created this technology.
The profits of these tech billionaires and tech corporations must not be put ahead of our communities, our country and the future of humanity itself. The CEO of Anthropic, other leaders at OpenAI and Google DeepMind, and Elon Musk are all urging a slowdown. Why are they scared?
Because they know that this technology, as it develops, is moving faster than humans can build guardrails. The claim made by the President of the United States that the threats posed by AI are a hoax is grossly irresponsible. Words and attitudes like that are not leadership; they amount to negligence.
The President of the United States should be condemned for those comments. If the United States will not lead on this issue, then Australia and other countries must. We must show the world that this technology can be controlled.
This is where my bill comes into play. When AI goes rogue—and it already has—humans must retain the ability and the authority to pull the plug, to hit the kill switch, because the day will come when this technology can hack into critical defence assets. We also need to control the data centres.
We need a moratorium on new data centres that builds safeguards and controls them, to protect productive agricultural land and our water resources, to protect households and businesses from higher power and water bills, to protect the environment and public health and to empower local communities by letting them have a say as to whether they want these data centres and their energy sources in their areas.
Out in country Australia, we're already struggling with debilitating drought and cycles of it. We need AI oversight, and that's what my bill delivers—and this process must be properly funded. We need to make sure that the oversight protects our privacy, our civil rights and the very future of humanity itself.
We need kill switches on the technology and commonsense guardrails around data centres on the ground. I urge all members to back my bill.