Labor and the Coalition are poised to take a reckless gamble on AI. Haven't they realised community support has collapsed?

Labor and the Coalition are poised to take a reckless gamble on AI. Haven't they realised community support has collapsed?

Australia’s major parties are moving toward rare agreement on a big artificial intelligence push just as public confidence is sliding. A parliamentary joint select committee on AI begins fresh hearings this week, with decisions on data centres and adoption set to shape the economy, environment and society for decades. Last year just 30 percent of Australians believed AI’s benefits outweighed its risks, and trust is falling further in 2026. The immediate harm is already visible in workplaces, where supermarket staff face AI-generated productivity targets that push them harder and raise injury risk, remote workers are monitored through screen and audio surveillance, and rideshare drivers can lose days of work over automated penalties unrelated to their performance. Australia is also among the highest per-capita users of generative AI tools such as Claude, so the technology is already embedded in daily life. The committee is being urged to update the Fair Work Act so any worker monitoring must be fair and reasonable, a reform that would directly affect how millions of Australians experience their jobs.