Topics: Artificial Intelligence; Childcare safety; IBAC and integrity bodies
E&OE……………………………………
Tom Connell: Joining me now is Matt O’Sullivan, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and Prevention of Family Violence. Thank you for your time today.
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Good to be with you, Tom.
Tom Connell: Interesting move from Chris Bowen. So the NT particularly looking at maybe data centres linked directly to gas fired power. Is it fair to say the Coalition would allow that there’d be no requirement at all for any sort of renewable energy with a data centre?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, Tom, what we want to see is AI in Australia. We need our own sovereign capability. AI is here and it’s going to form a significant role within our economy and within our future ongoing, of course, everyone understands that. But what we’re not seeing is the leadership at the federal level that’s going to fully realise the vision and the opportunity that is here for Australia to play a leading role. We can either be a taker when it comes to AI or we can be a leader and we should be leading. Now in terms of what’s required for power, you of course need stable baseload power for AI to be able to operate and for data centres to be able to operate. You can’t simply rely on renewables alone to be able to supply the data centres. They can’t operate under that sort of environment.
Tom Connell: He says they’d be firmed in some way, but I guess it goes to Labor’s priority.
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: They’re very power hungry, Tom.
Tom Connell: Yeah, yeah, it goes to Labor’s priority of saying they still want to hit various targets. Obviously the Coalition, no longer says it backs net zero. Do you have any policies that limit emissions at all or is it essentially let her rip under the opposition
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, no, Tom, we do, of course, we will embrace all technologies, and of course if we see more use of nuclear, for example, in Australia then of course there’s zero emissions that are attached to that. So, we of course, can achieve our energy requirements. We can get down the cost of electricity for consumers, for businesses, and for households in a way that’s not actually going to, you know, have that sort of impact on people’s budgets. We can get down the cost of electricity for consumers, for businesses and for households in a way that’s not actually going to, you know, have that sort of impact on people’s budgets. And we think, you know, renewables will play a role within that. But simply putting all the eggs in one basket is what’s actually driving up the cost.
Tom Connell: Yeah and I’m not saying to be fair, you’re banning renewables or technology, but are there any policies that coalition has at the moment that specifically limit emissions anywhere in the economy?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, Tom, we of course see that there is a role that renewables will play and have a significant role to play
Tom Connell: But you’re not setting any limits in electricity. You’re not. There won’t be, a benchmark for business to safeguard emissions of business, is there? Is there any policy in the Coalition at all that limits future emissions or growth of them?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Tom, well no. We’re wanting to see, our primary objective is to see cheaper electricity, cheaper costs of energy and that is going to deliver the outcomes that Australians need, that industry needs. And we can, we can do that in an effective way. Obviously renewables, as I’ve said, will, will play a significant role, but putting all the eggs in one basket as the government is doing is driving up costs. And in fact we’re not seeing the reduction in emissions like what was promised before the last election.
Tom Connell: Wanted to ask within your portfolio so the government’s working on a national professional register for early childhood educators. Obviously a desire to help avoid any childhood abuse. Your proposal of a public register. Why the need for it to be public? How will that better stamp this out?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, Tom, the difficulty that Australians face, Australian parents face is when they see media reports of these heinous crimes that are alleged to have been perpetrated in centres across the country. While they are small in terms of the number over, in the scheme of the total number of children enrolled in childcare. Nonetheless, for those parents when they see the media reports, it’s of course very alarming. And right now all they’re relying on is media reports and they then make enquiries of their own wondering whether or not their child might have intersected with one of these alleged perpetrators of these crimes. And of course, that’s an incredibly anxious environment for them to be in. And we think by having a public register where they can go on, where they can clearly see whether or not an individual has worked in a centre while their child was in that childcare centre, it would be very smart simple thing for the government to introduce, I think the providers themselves would welcome that. Childcare workers, who are of course 99.999% of them, who are doing the right thing and want to do the right thing, would welcome it as well, and we think this is a simple change that the government can make.
Tom Connell: There’s been a lot of reaction of course to IBAC. Victorian Labor figures, including the former premier saying, well, there is no corruption finding. The Victorian Coalition says, well this shows how flawed IBAC is. The bar for corruption is too high. And this investigation began in 2018. Almost no public inquiries and that means no one was able to find out about this. Is that the Victorian Coalition wants to change that. Is that something the federal Coalition is looking at as well, more public Inquiries in particular and looking at the bar for corruption cause the national ICAC’s not finding much at the moment, is it?
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Well, I of course, Victorians waking up learning about what’s happening in their own state is of course very alarming in terms of what the Coalition’s doing at a national level. I’m just outside of my area in terms of what they, what we would do in terms of adjusting the federal body’s powers. But of course, it’s very concerning that there is such a narrow definition of what corruption is in the IBAC framework and I think you know as the Victorian opposition leader has said, that needs to be looked at, and I certainly would welcome that because it’s, while the recommendations are there for the government there in Victoria to implement and it should be implemented, they really don’t go far enough. There needs to be more to ensure that that corruption culture that has existed in Victoria for quite some time is stopped in its tracks and so that it can’t continue.
Tom Connell: Matt O’Sullivan got to leave it there. Thank you.
Senator Matt O’Sullivan: Thanks, Tom.