Workers’ rights in a world of artificial intelligence will dominate Labor’s national conference in a test for Anthony Albanese’s attempt to shape the debate.
The prime minister’s landmark AI speech earlier this week is being viewed as far from the last word on the subject inside Labor, with last-minute disagreements on how the party should approach the technology expected.
Senior ministers, MPs, party officials, union leaders and 400 elected delegates will gather in Adelaide for three days from Thursday to debate and vote on what will become the party’s national policy platform for the next three years.
A draft of the platform has evolved in recent months to include significant references to the impact of AI across the economy, including on jobs.
The latest version distributed to delegates ahead of the conference includes commitments to ensure AI companies are held accountable to Australian “values and laws” and that there is “transparency, accountability, fairness and culpability” for the “harms these systems and models produce”.
The draft has also called for workers to be “meaningfully consulted” on workplace change, like the use of AI and automation, impacting their jobs.
But further amendments and discussion to address AI’s impact on jobs, resilience, energy use and sovereign capability are expected before a final vote on the platform is held.
Interested delegates can continue to lodge potential amendments up to the day before each policy area is debated, meaning Labor figures will have until Wednesday to do so.
One Labor source said they expected the focus of the AI debate would be more “worker-focused” than copyright, while another questioned how “serious” any stoush would be.
The Labor member said they believed the prime minister would be “relaxed” about any debate given it was a policy area without any “obvious solutions”.
They said compared to more prickly subjects like the push to tax gas exports or impose tougher gambling restrictions, a debate on AI would hardly be “damaging” for the government.
Internal grumbling about how contrived most of the debate on issues likely to attract controversy is a common theme ahead of each conference, but another Labor source said this year control seemed particularly “tight”.
Albanese flags importance of ‘secure’ work
Mr Albanese addressed a wide range of concerns linked to the proliferation of AI across the economy and society in a speech at Sydney University on Wednesday.
“We want AI to support and create good jobs, not replace them,” he said.
The prime minister said workforce trends were changing, but the “value and importance of secure and fulfilling work” remained.
“We must create a new generation of good, secure jobs for our economy,” he said.
Ed Husic says he was “spooked” by Anthony Albanese’s comments on AI. (ABC News: Mark Hiney)
Mr Albanese later told 7.30 he was encouraging workers to recognise AI was coming.
“Change is happening, and they have an interest in shaping that change because if not, then they don’t get a say,” he said.
Labor MP Ed Husic said on Thursday he was “spooked” when he heard Mr Albanese encourage workers to recognise AI was happening.
“Workers do get it, workers are using AI, but that doesn’t mean that they fully trusted, and it certainly doesn’t mean they will think about what it will do to their jobs or their kids’ jobs,” he told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
Union leader rejects AI ‘veto’ claim
Sally McManus says employers and tech companies must prove the benefits of AI. (AAP Image: Joel Carrett)
The prime minister’s speech was backed by Australian Council of Trade Unions leader Sally McManus, who has argued it is on employers and tech companies to “demonstrate the benefits of AI at the moment”.
“Why should we trust a technology that’s run by, you know, four billionaires and the Chinese government, that we’ve got no control over,” she said.
Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume this week accused Labor of “tearing itself up” over whether unions should have the right to “veto” AI adoption in the workplace.
“Can you imagine if unions had had a right of veto as to whether a company could have adopted computers … whether a company could adopt emails … use the internet?” she said.
But Ms McManus said the unions did not want to “veto” technology use, only the “harm it could cause”.
“We’ve been told it could possibly wipe out all these jobs, so we’re all saying ‘hang on a minute, we better get ready as a country to make sure that we can protect Australians,'” she said.
Ms McManus also said there was no point pitching solutions to the potential problems of AI without a clearer understanding of their impact first.
