QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:19): I thank the member for Barton for her question. Indeed, AI offers extraordinary opportunities for Australia, for our growth, for investment, for productivity and for businesses such as those I'll speak with tonight at the Australian Industry Group about using AI to benefit their productivity and therefore to be able to grow.
Our government knows that, and that's why we're legislating Australian standards for AI. That's why we're also consulting across the board, engaging seriously with other nations as well as with AI companies themselves, so we can make sure that AI stands for Australia's interests, harnessing its power as a tool to help us build a stronger economy. We know that we need humanity to shape AI rather than the other way around.
That is why we've established the AI committee that has been stood-up in a bipartisan fashion and has already begun its work under the leadership of the member for Maribyrnong and Senator Duniam in the other place. The hack by a frontier AI agent into government websites brought home to Australians that some of the risks which are there are very real indeed. We took strong action on that and made our nation's view clear that the breach was completely unacceptable.
It is clear for everyone to see that the AI genie is well and truly out of the bottle. We can't pretend that it doesn't exist and isn't already having an impact on the way that we work, the way that we engage and, indeed, the way that politics is conducted as well. That is why what really matters is how we respond to it and how we intervene and shape it.
That is also why we are engaging with domestic and global companies and with other nations as well. We did that at the United Nations General Assembly last month. We did that as well in the meetings that we have continued to hold with major companies.
We're going to make sure that Australia can gain from the benefits that can come from AI whilst mitigating the risks. That is the way forward, that is what is in Australia's national interest, and that is what we will continue to do. I encourage every member of this House to engage with this process because this will be one of the dominant issues over the next decade and beyond.