By Paul Sakkal
Big business and unions are on a collision course over Labor’s plans to curb the use of artificial intelligence – a policy with potential to create another flashpoint with the Trump administration.
The federal government has been mulling new laws or regulations to limit the potentially damaging effect of some automated tools, mirroring moves in Europe. The EU attracted the wrath of US Vice-President J.D. Vance, who said in February that “excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry”.
Australia’s most influential corporate lobby group, the Business Council of Australia (BCA), is calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to shun calls for heavier regulation stemming from the ethics debates surrounding advances such as OpenAI.
AI looms as a critical workplace battleground in Labor’s second term under Anthony Albanese.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The argument to avoid curbs puts the business lobby on the side of Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, who said last week that AI presented immense economic opportunities and existing regulations should be favoured instead of new rules. But unions are pushing for federal regulations to protect workers, setting up a fresh contest on industrial relations in Labor’s second term.
BCA boss Bran Black wants schools to teach about AI in primary school and is arguing for large boosts to research in the sector to drive up Australia’s sagging rate of productivity and material living standards.
Australia must avoid EU-style laws which are too broad, according to Black, a former adviser to ex-NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.
US Vice President J.D. Vance delivers a speech during the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris in February.Credit: AP
“We should always start from the premise that the application and use of AI is overwhelmingly positive and will increase our collective prosperity,” Black told this masthead.
The BCA is pointing to existing applications of AI to prove its potential as an economic boon, including Commonwealth Bank using machines to read documents, BHP using the technology to manage resources and save water, and Salesforce addressing 84 per cent of customer inquiries without human involvement.
The BCA’s report, titled Accelerating Australia’s AI Agenda, states: “What if every call centre in Australia could handle twice as many customer inquiries with half the wait time? What if your HR team could process payroll and benefits in minutes instead of days?
“This isn’t futuristic thinking. This is possible today with basic machine learning applied to relatively boring tasks. And the productivity improvements can be extraordinary.”
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black.Credit: Louise Kennerley
Labor’s Ed Husic, when he was industry and science minister before being dumped from cabinet, last year floated the prospect of a new AI act that would create new regulations for the emerging sector. The minister who replaced Husic, NSW senator Tim Ayres, is considering the government’s next steps as part of a national AI capability strategy due by the end of the year.
But with new Industrial Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth flagging a new era of collaboration between employers and workers, the government faces a challenge managing the duelling expectations of the corporate sector and the labour movement.
Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus has been raising concerns about machines taking workers’ jobs and the use of automated tools to make decisions on hiring and firing.
McManus is also worried about the quality of workers’ output diminishing as more workers relied on generative AI like ChatGPT.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus.Credit: Penny Stephens
McManus told this masthead that the technological forces reshaping the economy could not have been foreseen until recent years and workers must be shielded.
“Workers must be protected from having AI imposed on them in ways that destroy their jobs, diminish their rights, steal their data and dehumanise their work,” she said.
“Employers should look to approach these challenges in partnership with unions as they too have much to lose if the huge tech companies steal their data and behave to extract profit with no safeguards.”
Australia signed a 60-country pledge to regulate the world of AI to “ensure AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy”.
China was also a signatory, but the United States and Britain were not, reflecting the importance of AI-linked financial uplift to the booming tech sector that has close links to the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has taken issue with foreign government policies that it believes impinge on the profitability of US tech firms, including Australia’s levy which charges firms like Meta and Google for hosting local news stories.
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