“Given the Coalition’s relationship with big business has soured in recent years, AI could be a valuable opportunity to collaborate on big policy design and re-build mutual trust,” writes political columnist ROBERT McMAHON.

I recently opined how the federal Coalition was giving an excellent impression of being a policy vacuum.

Aside from broad policy pronouncements, half way through the Albanese Labor government’s second term, the opposition is far from assuring Australians it has the policy platform needed to resume government.

This is unfortunate as, in recent weeks, the government has made some policy missteps that ought to have been critiqued by an effective opposition with its own policy. 

But, as the old ad jingle for the women’s clothing outlet Sussan trilled, “this goes with that”. And so, an ineffective opposition begets ineffective policy formulation. It’s hardly rocket science.

On the subject of rocket science, I as one of many Australians look on with a mix of wonder, excitement and trepidation about what is seemingly the ceaseless march of artificial intelligence (or AI).

And we have seen its power when things go wrong, infiltrating Medicare databases beyond original instructions.

But trade union demands that it be regulated to protect traditional jobs impress as a fantastical mix of self-delusion and self-harm: the thought that we in Australia can withstand the development of a borderless technology whose power promises to outstrip the reforming impact of industrial mechanisation is plain folly.

It is for this reason that Australians are increasingly worried about their employment future in a world where AI will transform the very nature of work.

Once, a parent might have considered their duty fulfilled getting their child through school and into university, a trade or secure employment. Today, that no longer looks so predictable. 

We have all heard stories of jobs previously undertaken by office workers, junior lawyers, accountants or public servants that suddenly don’t seem all that secure in the face of AI.

Tasks that might have taken a junior lawyer half a day to complete can suddenly be completed in a few minutes, especially by a skilled operator who knows how to guide AI platforms, define and refine prompts to produce quality output and avoid AI “hallucination” (errors).

Recently I had lunch with a former APS colleague. She told me of a conversation with HR in which she was offered the services of once-coveted graduates in their forthcoming rotation among divisions. No thanks, she replied, I can be more productive investing in my existing advisers to use AI and produce what a grad can in a fraction of the time.

This seemed so selfish in a way: investing now in today’s young professionals is necessary for tomorrow’s professional workforce.

But, once I put aside my tut-tutterie, I sort of got her point. In a world of tight funding and tighter deadlines, resource decisions have become pragmatic if not also a bit expedient. And AI has provided the outlet for both.

Which brings me back to the Coalition and policy opportunity. A sensible policy platform would be for it to engage – head on – the issue of AI and its role in our future economy.

Rather than futilely resisting, as unions might, such policy should seek to harness AI’s enormous power to improve workers’ output. Lord knows our national productivity could do with a shot in the arm.

Tertiary education needs to strike a balance between prohibiting AI-generated material (ie, cheating) and skillfully teaching its use to students to apply it in their future workplaces. National energy grids need to support its thirsty power consumption and data centres should be built where they are needed.

Given the Coalition’s relationship with big business has soured in recent years, this could also be a valuable opportunity to collaborate on big policy design and re-build mutual trust.

But the Opposition should also engage directly with the fears understandably harboured by many parents about their kids’ futures and livelihoods. 

“Sweeteners”, as we used to call them back in my days in government, are necessary tools to sooth those worried about large change.

The opposition might therefore extend its old Australian Technical College model – now school trade training centres – to provide rigorous AI skills to school students who, as workers, will need them.

And courses at universities should be properly structured (and funded) to integrate responsible and ethical AI into professional practice.

We cannot bury our heads in the sand about AI. To do so would be like a lemon tree in a cyclone: fruitless. 

But we can and should ready ourselves for its inevitable impact. And the opposition would do well to grab this policy bull by the horns.

Dr Robert McMahon PSM is a visiting fellow at the ANU, adjunct professor at the University of Canberra, and a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

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