ADJOURNMENT

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (16:29): During my time here, I've had the privilege of receiving dozens of wonderful speeches written by young Australians as part of the Raise Our Voice program. Thanks to everyone who submitted a speech. It was really difficult to choose which one to read.

I've got some very passionate and articulate young constituents. Here is Alice's speech: Dear members of parliament, my name is Alice. I'm 10 and I live in Brisbane.

To me, climate change is the biggest issue shaping our future. Oceans are warming, coral is bleaching and ecosystems are suffering. All around the world today these horrible occurrences are happening and some events that are even worse.

Do you care about this planet? The planet that gives food, water and a home to everything? The planet that gives us life.

The planet that our own kind is destroying. If you do care then why isn't more being done as we approach the unrecoverable tipping point of climate change? Why are humans so resistant to positive change?

Well, I care. My friends care. My generation cares.

This is because if we don't do something now, we will have to face the consequences of the future. We will have to pay the price, not you. So if you do care about Australia's future then start making an impact.

Some things you could do include: increasing government incentives for renewable energy sources; investing in more solar farms, wind turbine farms and hydroelectricity projects, including working towards harnessing tidal power to generate electricity. There are many things you, me and all Australians can do to make more sustainable choices such as using environmentally friendly products, recycling and composting.

So what are you waiting for? Thanks, Alice, for that excellent speech. Alice is completely right, of course, and it's her generation that inspires me.

Sadly, our political system allows big corporations, including fossil fuel companies, to donate huge sums of money to political parties. Then those political parties do as they're told by big corporations—they are bought. It's a fundamental structural, moral and ethical problem destroying trust in our politics, and it shouldn't be allowed.

Later this month, I will present a bill to fix exactly this problem. It would ban fossil fuel corporations from making political donations, removing one of the worst corrupting influences on our government, poisoning our politics. I hope the other parties will support it.

But of course, they've profited from this system forever, so I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, I encourage young people like Alice to keep up the fight. The most powerful thing ordinary people can do is take on these big companies whose undue influence is corrupting our politics and damaging our future, and we should all stand up together for what is right.

I'm also thinking about the future and what AI means for our minds, our planet, our lives. Many Australians are understandably sceptical of AI. The government just can't keep up with the technology.

We have seen across many sectors the huge damage that rapacious, profit driven, unregulated corporations can do—massive water-guzzling data centres, a new frontier of resource extraction. Is generative AI a useful tool or a quandary for education and learning? Will AI be beneficial to our society?

These are the questions I am asking my community in Ryan to think about. I want to know how real people feel about AI and its impact on their lives. If AI is here to stay, we've got to ensure that it's regulated and useful to us, not just to corporations.

It can't be yet another drain on our communities. We can't let massive global corporations write the rules on this—companies like Microsoft's data centre company, who, by the way, paid no tax in the last financial year. The government have one chance to get this right, and they should know that regular Australians are watching closely.

I'm looking forward to reading through the responses to my AI survey in the coming weeks, and to sharing Ryan's view in parliament.