Perth WA
E&OA

 

Check against delivery

 

I’m really pleased to have this opportunity to speak directly to you all at this AFR AI Summit, and I am very sorry my second Cabinet meeting in Perth today means I couldn’t be with you all in person.

 

I’d very much like to be there to meet tech sector and business leaders engaged in the task of tech and AI transformation, so vital to Australia’s future economic growth, competitiveness and productivity.

 

There is, however, something apt about speaking to you all about the digital economy from here in Perth as a disembodied image there in Sydney.

 

I am deeply honoured by my appointment as the Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science in this second term of the Albanese Labor Government.

 

Like all of my colleagues, I am acutely aware of the responsibility that each of us has, and that we have together as a government.

 

To implement the agenda that we were elected upon, to deliver it with impact for Australia and for Australians.

 

Like the PM and my colleagues, none of us is here to just take up the space, to mildly administer our portfolios or give banal soundbites about the national challenges and opportunities presented to Australia.

 

We are focused acutely on the task at hand.

 

This is a decade that is going to be more consequential than most for our living standards, economic growth, productivity and security.

 

My core job in all of this is to drive toward our Future Made in Australia objectives with purpose.

 

To coordinate across government and State and Territory governments, and to collaborate with industry, the tech community, our scientific and research establishments, the investment community and national institutions like our trade union movement, to drive investment, deliver impact and to create good jobs.

 

To put Australia’s national interest, economic resilience and future competitiveness objectives at the centre of our work as a government.

 

And to make it all happen, to implement the world’s best industry, technology and research and development policy.

 

We will do great things as a country together.

 

Reorient the economy toward higher productivity, higher value, and more strategically important industry.

 

One example from outside the digital economy to illustrate.

 

Shift from simply exporting iron ore to making iron and steel here using our competitive advantage in zero emissions electricity production.

 

To protect our vital iron ore sector, but also to drive global investment in higher value Australian production, create good jobs in regional Australia, build our economic and strategic resilience and support the decarbonisation objectives of our steel-making partners.

 

Make more products in areas of future comparative advantage here in Australia to diversify our economy, and make sure every region and outer suburb and every segment of Australian society reap the benefits of this economic growth.

 

Digital technology and artificial intelligence sit at the heart of this set of national challenges and national opportunities.

 

They straddle the economic resilience and future competitiveness national interest objectives that are at the centre of Future Made in Australia.

 

Investments in digital infrastructure like energy hungry AI data centres go squarely toward our national advantages, and our national interest.

 

Australia’s status as a five eyes economy with stable governance, our geography at the edge of the fastest growing region of the world in human history with an insatiable demand for digital products and infrastructure, our future energy advantage all position Australia as the top tier for global investment. 

 

And our national interest demands it. It is not in Australia’s interest to sit back and wait for investment to happen somewhere else, to be taker rather than a maker of software, quantum and AI technology.

 

Australia has to lean in, to secure a stake in global digital and AI development – to shape the digital future rather than have a future shaped for us at the end of global digital supply changing with technology, norms and infrastructure owned by increasingly narrow parts of the global economy.

 

Core to this national interest is also using the digital economy and AI adoption as foundational to future productivity growth.

 

AI adoption is not a future task for firms and government – it is well and truly underway. The Australian challenge is to lean in to adopt AI to lift productivity and living standards, deliver investment in infrastructure and capability and protect our security.

 

To realise the opportunities where we can, and regulate where we must.

 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is right to identify that altering the last decade’s  anaemic trajectory of productivity growth is the central task of this and future governments.

 

Lifting national productivity isn’t a challenge unique to Australia – miserable productivity growth is a global phenomenon – but steadily improving our relative productivity performance is a crucial national endeavour and I am determined to have an impact on it in terms of investment, technology and particularly AI adoption terms.

 

Other countries in the region are moving fast – and so must we.

 

And while my portfolio is central to this endeavour and to Australia’s approach to AI investment, development and diffusion, this is of course a challenge that sits across the whole of government.

 

It is hard to come up with a portfolio area that will not be impacted in terms of the provision of services and the policy area’s engagement with the private sector, whether education, health or our national security – I won’t insult your intelligence by trying to list them all, I think this audience knows better than me.

 

But economic growth and productivity, and AI’s role within that, means so much in terms of the world of work, higher wages, opportunity and social equity.

 

Because we are a Labor Government, it means delivering good jobs, more economic opportunity for women and men through all of Australia’s suburbs and regions, and including us all in this democracy by including all of us in this vital national discussion.

 

So, I will be looking in particular at how we can strengthen worker voice and agency as technology is diffused into every workplace in the Australian economy and I look forward to working with our trade union movement on all of this.

 

My job as Industry and Innovation Minister, working closely with my able colleague Dr Andrew Charlton as Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy, will be to collaborate and coordinate across government so that there is clarity and consistency of purpose and certainty for the tech sector in order to deliver on these vital national interest objectives together.

 

I’d like to acknowledge the Business Council of Australia for their recently published Australian AI report, which has been very helpful in considering some of these points.

 

Beyond collaborating across government with my Ministerial colleagues and the APS – and with colleagues in the States and Territories – I will take a principles-led approach which will deliver more certainty, predictability and sense of purpose demonstrated over time.

 

There are of course questions of regulation, norms, standards and how best to manage risks and harms, which need to be worked through here in Australia and with the sector and our friends and partners overseas.

 

Increasing skills and education of Australians, and confidence in AI adoption is key. This is not something that government can achieve alone – but by working in partnership with the tech sector.

 

And working carefully to make sure that AI adoption makes jobs better means finding ways of working cooperatively with workers and their unions to make sure we have a shared approach to tech adoption in every workplace in Australia.

 

Of course government and industry have a responsibility to deal with risk, to demonstrate how digital economy adoption can benefit workers and citizens, and protect people’s privacy and the community.

 

My feet are only just under the desk, and I am determined to talk to my Cabinet and caucus colleagues, the PM and the Treasurer before I canvas our broad framework with you.

 

And in terms of the detail, I want to build on the work of my predecessor Ed Husic and to listen and learn across the sector before I venture a comprehensive view.

 

But I hope that this brief contribution gives you some clarity about my instinctive response on tech and AI adoption – to lean in, to anchor investment and capability here, and to shape a social democratic national interest approach that includes all Australians in our shared digital future.

 

Thank you I look forward to answering your questions.