Digital Economy
Transcript
Date: 12 February 2024
TRANSCRIPT
MMs WARE (Hughes) (18:31): I rise to speak in favour of this motion brought by the honourable member for Casey, who has been a passionate advocate for advancing and supporting Australia's digital economy. Our digital economy is now an integral part of the lives of Australians, whether it be ecommerce, emarketplaces, online education courses, streaming platforms, social media, videoconferencing, e-health or innovative work-from-home options. The digital economy now accounts for more than $120 billion of our economy's total value. Australians are renowned for our innovative spirit and inventiveness, as evident from our impressive contributions to the world in various fields. From the Hills hoist to the black box flight recorder, wi-fi technology, the winged keel, vegemite and the cochlear implant, our nation has consistently pushed the boundaries of human achievement. Australians have similarly embraced the digital revolution, whether as innovators, startups or users.
We need a government that will support this revolution and prioritise the digital economy. The Albanese Labor government's failure to prioritise the digital economy is therefore incomprehensible. The digital economy is not just a passing trend. It is the foundation of our future economic landscape. It plays a critical role in driving economic growth and creating new job and study opportunities for Australians. However, unfortunately, the Albanese Labor government has taken a 20th-century approach towards the digital economy and artificial intelligence. This is a government that, as we can see by its attitude towards AI, lacks vision, is backward thinking and refuses to act in the interests of citizens and industry. By all measures, this appears to be a government that has little enthusiasm for digital transformation. This comes as no surprise. The government does not have a minister for the digital economy, nor does it have a clear national goal to be a leading digital economy.
I was here when my friend, the member for Hunter, said that we had no plan. However, Labor inherited a fit-for-purpose digital economy strategy from the former coalition government. It provided the Public Service and industry with certainty and confidence about the government's commitment to this crucial and ever-emerging area of the economy. However, since this government was elected, we have gone backwards. Part of the problem, we can see, lies in the government's IR agenda, prioritising a union driven agenda, deeply hostile to the kind of workplace flexibility and choice which typically is a feature of technology businesses.
As I said, Australians have always been early adopters of new technology, and we can see that at the moment with such things as Uber, Menulog and Airbnb. Consumers embrace online platforms for their choice and convenience and savings in time and sometimes money. Australians have benefited not just as consumers but also from the new work and business opportunities that have arisen from these platforms. There's the opportunity to work flexibly when it suits them, be it a few hours a week or 40 or more hours a week, on these platforms. But the Albanese Labor government is actively hostile, and why is that? The reason is pretty obvious. The reason they don't like the gig economy is because their great mates, the union bosses, hate the gig economy. Their IR legislative agenda clearly shows this. Australia is returning to an interventionist, centralised workplace relations system, with no mention of productivity or actually trying to lift the standard of living of all Australians.
The government's failure to have a minister for the digital economy has meant that the government has taken a slow approach towards engaging with artificial intelligence policy settings. This is despite AI already being widely used in consumer-facing services without controversy—for example, serving up suggestions to you on Spotify, YouTube or Amazon for your next song, video or book. Australia should be a world leader in AI thanks to our strong and growing technology sector and advances in scientific research. Rather than leading to a reduction in jobs, in many of these instances, artificial intelligence is instead resulting in an increase in activity. Just as the development of the automobile and the computer created a range of new professions and jobs, AI will do the same. It is now time that the Albanese Labor government started prioritising the digital economy and artificial intelligence policy settings.