Husic, who has long advocated for a more interventionist approach on AI policy, said big firms like OpenAI and Anthropic should not be left to self-regulate, and that the federal government should be setting strong rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were to wait for social licence with industry, we wouldn\u2019t get emissions reduction. Governments sometimes have to step in,\u201d Husic told Sky News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve tried this. Going down the path of social licence with tech is a path that\u2019s sadly doomed to failure, because we tried self-regulation for a couple of decades and found out that it didn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister will deliver a highly anticipated speech in Sydney on Wednesday to address growing concerns around social licence and the necessary policy guardrails for AI, datacentres and Australian intellectual property. While the details of the speech and several expected announcements have been tightly held, Albanese is not expected to detail progress on long-awaited copyright reforms to protect creative industries.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Labor has long ruled out giving a text and data mining exemption<\/a> for AI firms to train their large language models on Australian content without compensation to creators, but cabinet discussions on copyright reforms are continuing. Guardian Australia understands there is a diversity of views among senior ministers following lobbying from big tech and an industry proposal to grant AI companies special copyright exemptions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Documents released under freedom of information laws reveal Treasury officials warned Jim Chalmers that Anthropic would complain copyright rules were \u201cimpeding the development of datacentres\u201d<\/a> in Australia, ahead of a meeting with the company\u2019s chief executive, Dario Amodei.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Husic \u2013 the former minister for industry \u2013 strongly opposed making any such copyright changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m from the Labor side of politics. We\u2019ve grown up with the notion of a fair day\u2019s pay for a fair day\u2019s work \u2013 that people should be remunerated fairly for the labour, the effort that they provide. If you\u2019re a Labor person arguing to water down the Copyright Act, you\u2019re actually going against the ethos of your own party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked whether he thought his colleagues were doing that, Husic replied: \u201cObviously, there\u2019s a debate that\u2019s going on behind the scenes. Clearly, there\u2019s elements of this being teased out. Otherwise we wouldn\u2019t be getting this type of media speculation about what might happen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese companies \u2013 Anthropic, OpenAI \u2013 these are going to be the biggest or are already the biggest firms on the planet. Their executives get paid for their work, and if they\u2019re expecting others to hand over their work without being paid, that is just a no-go zone and should be resisted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s speech comes amid growing scrutiny on AI and datacentres, particularly the energy-intensive nature and the land, capital and workforce requirements to build the facilities. Illustrating the tightrope Labor is walking on responding to AI, Labor minister Sam Rae and backbencher Alice Jordan-Baird released a statement<\/a> last week raising concerns about a massive new development at Plumpton, in Melbourne\u2019s outer west, and backing community worries about impact on local energy, water, traffic and noise issues.<\/p>\n \u201cOur community deserves clear answers, genuine consultation and transparent planning processes \u2026 The west cannot simply become the destination for infrastructure that places additional strain on resources while delivering little in return,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n The MEAA said the government needed to outline its plans on copyright, and announce \u201clong-term solutions\u201d to protect creative workers from exploitation by AI companies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe benefits of AI cannot be captured by the same global entertainment and tech giants that already profit from our members\u2019 work \u2013 it must be the workers who benefit,\u201d a MEAA spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The union urged the government to consider rules for equitable remuneration, to guarantee workers like authors and musicians would have \u201ca guaranteed, inalienable right to be paid\u201d when their work is used or reproduced by AI systems, and to explicitly bar AI firms from training their models on creative works without consent and payment to the original creator.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2998.jpg\")
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