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September 15, 2026 \u2014 8:56pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Labor has offered AI firms open use of Australian content for training if they strike deals with enough Australian companies, in an attempt to break an impasse with tech firms wanting to invest billions.<\/p>\n Copyright holders such as authors, musicians or publications could be given the right to opt out, but under the proposal, the AI giants would be free to use any other material.<\/p>\n The negotiations over Australia\u2019s copyright laws are a pivotal component of the talks between the Albanese government and firms including Anthropic<\/a> and OpenAI.<\/p>\n These firms view Australia as arguably the best location to train their models outside the US due to a combination of geography, political stability, renewable energy and space. Labor argues the investment represents Australia\u2019s best chance of creating a new phase of growth like the mining boom.<\/p>\n However, Australia\u2019s existing copyright laws, which are tougher than those in most other countries, including the US, expose AI firms to the risk of being sued by international rights holders in Australia. AI execs also do not want Australia\u2019s laws to create an international precedent.<\/p>\n AI firms are chiefly worried they could be sued under Australian law by overseas copyright holders, bucking the common view that the US tech giants are most interested in finding ways to avoid paying for Australian content, which comprises only a tiny fragment of the content used to train models such as ChatGPT and Claude.<\/p>\n In his keynote speech on AI on July 15, Albanese signalled that Labor wanted to give local creatives control over whether their work was used.<\/p>\n \u201cNo company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist\u2019s control. That includes the artist\u2019s control of the price and value of their work,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything less is theft.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorney-General Michelle Rowland\u2019s department this month began consultations on copyright proposals to settle the deadlock.<\/p>\n One option, according to departmental documents released by Senator David Pocock, gives AI firms legal permission to use unprotected material from owners who have not formally opted out.<\/p>\n Related Article It follows plans within the proposed digital duty of care to allow adults to opt out of algorithmic social feeds, as the government seeks to regulate rather than block tech companies in Australia.<\/p>\n Firms would need to make payments to an organisation that would then distribute money to rights holders.<\/p>\n An alternative model would force tech companies to strike content deals with a minimum quota of Australian companies to receive legal rights to train on Australian content.<\/p>\n The document says a key objective of the proposals was to \u201cuphold the prime minister\u2019s commitment to a strong and vibrant Australian creative and media sector\u201d.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, OpenAI said Australia would become the first country to host AI model training if copyright could be resolved.<\/p>\n Anthropic has offered similar suggestions and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in August<\/a> that the investment window, which rests on the copyright negotiation, would run out in months rather than years because the technology was moving so fast.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are working at pace here,\u201d Marles said on ABC\u2019s 7.30 Report on Tuesday night, noting that \u201cthe opportunity for Australia economically is enormous\u201d if the government can collaborate with the tech giants, but any deal needed \u201cto come on terms which are in our national interest\u201d.<\/p>\n Pocock, who has been arguing for a tax on AI firms, said he was deeply concerned by the proposals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would mean putting companies\u2019 interests over everyday Australians, giving AI companies access to all Australians\u2019 content unless they opt out and they somehow put some sort of label on it to say, \u2018please don\u2019t use this for training\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash described the opt-out proposal as \u201ca text and data mining exception with an opt-out bolted on. It is precisely what the government said it had ruled out,\u201d and demanded the government enforce existing laws and ensure deals were struck with all copyright holders.<\/p>\n Related Article The Coalition\u2019s communications spokeswoman, Sarah Henderson, said: \u201cThis has all the hallmarks of a dirty deal to hand the intellectual property of Australian creators to global AI giants.\u201d<\/p>\n Top AI execs this week called for a global slowdown in AI development due to safety fears. US President Donald Trump pushed back and said China, which is pushing for digital supremacy, would not slow down.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that Abigail Bradshaw, of the Australian Signals Directorate, had raised the prospect of an \u201cearly warning system for advanced AI models\u201d which would involve \u201ccompanies working together with governments to identify and address AI immediately, rather than before it is too late.\u201d<\/p>\n Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Prime](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/29603b39234ae4886aae46a54bd08b1f798067f7.jpeg\")
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in question time on Monday.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c10610e4186c33df9c52101310db9c3e7e9d8f10.jpeg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789479016_756_119281a2607761852c4e3d0bae521b8cb3f98cb4.png\")
Paul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 15, 2026 \u2014 8:56pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-892913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}