Prime minister to establish new Office of AI within his department
Anthony Albanese will stamp his prime ministerial authority over Australia’s response to the AI revolution, amid fears of mass redundancies and energy-guzzling data centres, and set up an office within his department to deal with technology while reassuring US firms that Australia is open for business.
In his most comprehensive AI speech in Sydney on Wednesday, the Prime Minister will highlight AI’s “pivotal” role in reviving productivity and warn extremists and hostile states are using it “to spread disinformation targeting democracies”.
Albanese will draw on European responses to introduce an AI Office in his department, creating a single checkpoint for policymaking rather than addressing each AI issue separately.
“Getting this right will increase our attractiveness to international investors by providing greater clarity and speed for approvals,” Albanese will say, according to a copy of his speech.
The pro-investment statement suggests that Albanese does not want to scare off companies like Anthropic and Google as policymakers navigate the confusing trade-offs presented by technology.
Tech companies and others want to pour billions of dollars into data centers in Australia, but Albanese is also trying to attract investment while also countering hostility towards data centers and convincing unions that Labor will protect workers from job losses.
After months of debate within Labor over how warmly to embrace AI, the government hopes the AI Office will give ministers the power to use AI to improve public service efficiency.
“Just as [Australia] “We have developed coordinated approaches for other important technologies, from civil aviation in the 1920s to genetics in the 1990s, we must do this with artificial intelligence as well,” Albanese will say.
“This year’s National Defense Strategy identified artificial intelligence and machine learning as having the ‘most significant potential for technological disruption’ in the coming years.
“We know that both extremists and state actors are already using AI to create propaganda and spread disinformation targeting democracies.”
The conversation comes at a pivotal moment for AI. The stratospheric valuation of the world’s largest companies has ushered in a new era of wealth creation and positioned Australia as a top destination for rapidly expanding data centres—buildings that require greater land reserves to house the computing power needed to facilitate everything from video streaming to chatbot calls.
Amid the hype about the economic gold rush, some community groups are opposing data centers that use large amounts of energy and water. Concerns about job losses and social disruption also come to the fore.
On Tuesday, nearly 200 economists in the United States, including 15 Nobel laureates and the chief economists of OpenAI and Anthropic, published a statement saying the effects of artificial intelligence “could be greater than the Industrial Revolution, but may occur in a much shorter time frame.”
The announcement was seen as significant because some economists were skeptical of the large-scale deterioration in the job market. Many economists say artificial intelligence could improve living standards and expand workers’ tasks, noting earlier innovations such as computers that hit some professions but created others. Even in this scenario, many workers may be displaced in the short and medium term.
In the statement titled ‘We Must Act Now’, it was said: “Artificial intelligence can become radically more powerful in the next 10 years.”
Albanese’s office released only part of his speech on Tuesday. The quote shed light on the details of any new regulations, as the government is unsettled by suggestions it is taking a more hands-off approach. Unions will demand a more central role in managing industrial unrest at next week’s Labor Party conference.
More announcements are expected on Wednesday about how AI will impact certain sectors, such as defence. Anthropic claimed copyright exemption to train its models on Australian books, music and other productions; this move was strongly opposed by artists’ unions and associations.
The government is expected to reject a tech industry proposal to pay into a fund for creators. Labor wants digital giants to make individual deals with artists. However, it does not seem possible for Albanese to announce a solution in his speech.
Ed Husic, who drafted AI regulatory bills until he was kicked out of cabinet last year, said on Tuesday that no company would want to be the first to move to introduce guardrails because self-regulation is “doomed to fail.”
Writing for Labor about the AI think tank John Curtin Research Centre, Dr. Dominic Meagher said the government should approach this challenge in the same way Bob Hawke and Paul Keating faced globalisation.
“Hawke and Keating confronted this problem the Labor Party’s way, through negotiated change and shared gains. Australia emerged from the 80s with greater social cohesion and a longer period of growth than the UK or US, which were subject to Thatcher and Reagan efforts to let the market sort out the losers,” the Australian National University researcher said.
“It’s the same this time: If you try to hold back the tide you’re going to get knocked over, so surf instead and make sure it takes you where you want to go.”
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Paul Sakkal is the Chief Political Correspondent. He has previously covered Victorian politics and won the Walkley award as well as the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year award. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect with: X or email.
