Australia news live: Gareth Ward in legal bid to avoid expulsion from NSW parliament; Acoss says it’s time to roll back property tax breaks for investors
Key events
Cait Kelly
Treasurer says Australia can be ‘big player’ in future of datacentres
Chalmers was also asked about the former CEO of Atlassian, who recently said he wants to see Australia host massive data centres and see a change in the copyright law to allow exemptions for data mining for AI companies.
Chalmers said the data centres were “a major opportunity” for Australia, adding:
As it turns out, I’ve spent a few hours this afternoon with $3tn of Australian capital, the biggest investors in Australia, super and other institutional investors, we’ve been grappling with this question: how does Australia make the most of this opportunity when it comes to data centres and AI infrastructure more broadly?
We have got a big chance, we’ll be mad not to grab it. We need to get the energy piece right, the zoning approvals piece right, the skills piece right as well. We can be a big player in data centres.
Cait Kelly
Chalmers says he will err on the side of workers when it comes to AI
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, appeared on 7.30 last night, where he was talking about how AI will be a key topic at the government’s productivity roundtable in a few weeks.
He was asked if he would support the Australian Council of Trade Unions’ call for workers to be able to veto AI in their workplace. He said he would err on the side of workers:
We need to be realistic about it. And certainly, I agree that workers need to be part of the conversation when it comes to rolling out a technology that has this game-changing potential.
And where there’s very real potential risks in the labour market. I would always err on the side of workers having a say in how their work is done.
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Nick Visser, I’ll be bringing you updates as the day gets rolling. Let’s start with this:
The Australian Council of Social Services (Acoss) is calling for the government to roll back tax breaks for property investors before the treasurer’s productivity roundtable. Acoss is calling for the 50% capital gains tax discount to be halved “so there’d be some tax reward for property investment but nowhere near as generous”, the group’s chief told the ABC.
Also today, a court is expected to hear jailed MP Gareth Ward’s bid to prevent the NSW parliament from expelling him. We’ll bring you all the developments.
Stick with us.
