Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

They have a lot of time to interject but no time to think and no time to act—that's what happens from those opposite. The critical quote that was contained in this report was from Dr Matt Wenham of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, who said that when you look at new technologies, social licence is the key. He said:

Pick your technology; the issue is rarely with the technological aspects—that will be resolved with research that is going on in markets and that sort of work—it is around social acceptance and social licence. If the conversation is not structured properly with the community and people do not understand the issues around this and are not able to feel that they can have a say in how these technologies are deployed, you will have the sort of problems that you had with other technologies. We should not underestimate that social licence.

He is absolutely right. This is a conversation we need to have more with the public. We need to focus more on this issue, but more than anything else we need to prepare. The government is holding back the longer term benefit of automation and technological change, and it's increasing the risk of the downside on people. We as a nation cannot afford that. I commend the report, but I certainly condemn the government for their inaction in this space.

Debate adjourned.

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