Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will first of all associate myself with the comments by Senator McGrath, and I totally endorse him and the dissenting report. But I do congratulate all colleagues, including the chair, for the way in which this important inquiry was conducted.

The committee did highlight the profound impact that AI will have and, in fact, already is having on all aspects of life. From my perspective, through this inquiry and also through work that I've been doing with the IPU globally, it is very clear that that is something that our nation has to be engaged in. Everybody has to be engaged in the discussion about the threats and opportunities that AI now presents. The technology is developing so fast, particularly in generative AI, that it is really important, I think, that as a nation we hasten with caution—that we adopt things that we are confident about but that we at least have a good appreciation of the unintended consequences and are able to mitigate those risks.

But, as Senator McGrath has said and also Senator Sheldon has noted, there are vast quantities of data that are scraped from, probably, the records of all Australians—on social media and on many other platforms—without their knowledge, that have gone into that generative AI, the LLMs. This is something that should be of concern to all Australians, and I hope that this report will stimulate that discussion.

I also am disappointed that the government hasn't moved far more quickly on this in terms of analysing where current laws are sufficient to cover the regulation of AI that is currently being used, and to then identify the gaps where laws will be needed as this technology develops.

I want to spend the last couple of minutes talking about how valuable this inquiry and the findings have been for an inquiry that has just been stood up for the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, of which I am co-chair with Linda Burney, from the other place. We are now looking at the use of AI in all its forms across the federal public sector, in departments and agencies. We've had 41 submissions so far, and I must confess that what we've seen and what we've heard is quite alarming. That inquiry feeding into this one and what is happening across the Commonwealth public sector is going to be very important. The use of AI is patchy. We've got different departments with different rules, doing different things. There are working groups everywhere. But I fear that a number of departments who make decisions about the entitlements of all Australians—which is pretty much most departments—will step into areas that will cause great pain and angst, and there will be a lack of transparency for many Australians. So I am very much looking forward to seeing where that goes.

We are also having a look at the national security implications of AI's use by state and non-state actors, and at how AI can be used by criminals in terms of expanding their reach and the rapidity with which their criminal activities, including spear phishing and other things, can impact on all Australians.

I commend the report to chamber, and I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.