ADJOURNMENT

Ms AMBIHAIPAHAR (Barton) (16:44): I rise to share 16-year-old Dion's speech, provided to me through the Raise Our Voice program. Dion writes: An issue that requires immediate attention is the growing uncertainty surrounding the nature of AI in both workplace and educational institutions. As AI advances significantly with every passing year, its implications on society have become increasingly unpredictable.

To be told that the future you have prepared for may soon be made redundant has caused me, and many of my peers, considerable anxiety. We are encouraged to develop qualifications for pathways that may fundamentally differ by the time we enter them. For many young Australians, decisions surrounding their futures are being shaped by speculation rather than by genuine interest.

I implore the parliament to consider my propositions. In doing so, they ensure that Australians are prepared for, rather than displaced by, its future implications. Firstly, educational institutions should teach basic comprehension skills surrounding AI and its use.

Secondly, large-scale businesses should have mandatory requirements surrounding employment for entry-level positions. Finally, small businesses should be granted tax incentives or subsidies to educate young workers, promoting employee development over AI alternatives. AI will shape all of our futures, though the future should not be one where young Australians are left wondering of their place in the world.

Parliament must act. I share Dion's concerns about AI. When the developers directly behind the technology say that there is a 10 per cent chance it could wipe out humanity, Australians are right to be worried.

When we hear about an AI arms race between superpowers, the restructuring of our workforce and the demands that data centres place on energy and water, again, Australians are right to be worried. But when used properly, AI could accelerate medical research by decades. It could help address the productivity challenges that have caused so many national economies to stagnate.

It could help scale and stabilise renewable energy so that we can properly transition away from fossil fuels. It is both a threat and an opportunity. I was elected to this parliament to take difficult issues by the horns, so my job is to represent the human interest in policymaking and to put real people at the centre of the AI challenge, not to bow down to the demands of big foreign companies or to praise the pursuit of profit.

Government can often be a slow beast, but not in this case. The current AI inquiry, with its short deadline and bipartisan support, will inform our world-leading artificial intelligence framework. That framework starts with the promise that AI will not undercut working conditions, divide communities or damage our environment.

We'll also ensure that data centres are legally required to underwrite their own new power supply, pay their full share of connection costs so that household energy bills are not affected, reduce their power use when needed to support the grid and operate as efficiently as possible in their use of water. The detail on how to achieve these things can be delivered through the inquiry, which is due to report before the end of this year.

I don't want communities to feel like they have been blindsided by developments that care more about building in the name of profit rather than to the benefit of people. I applaud the work of the Bayside and Inner West councils in their advocacy around the proposed data centre at the old Kogarah Golf Club. Because of them, submissions to the project were extended, people got to have their say, and the councils' own submissions represented the community's concerns about the scale of the development, its impact on Cooks River and the unacceptable flooding impacts it may have.

Such concerns and others are reflected in the 593 submissions that object to the plan as it stands. I've also written to the state member for Rockdale and to the state planning minister. I share these concerns and I look forward to the response through the State Significant Development process.

AI is the biggest challenge of our time. Dion knows this, Barton knows this, I know this and this parliament knows this, and we will tackle it head-on.