Matt Byrne

Australia expected to dump dedicated AI laws Minister Ayres pledges 'Australian approach' to regulation.

New: Industry minister Tim Ayres says the government is “going to take our time to work through” questions on AI regulation “over the coming months”, pledging “an Australian approach”.

The Greens' @davidshoebridge.bsky.social labelled the alleged move away from an AI Act as "incredibly dangerous" 👇

She’s worked for a union and she’s a committed feminist. Her parents are owner/operators but seem to be from working class backgrounds. She should be in the ALP. I guess it raises questions about why Labor is not an attractive option for her because it ought to be.

Podcast #154: Tasmania votes for another hung parliament Ben is joined by Kevin Bonham and Chris Monnox to discuss the results of the Tasmanian state election and prospects for the formation of a new government. This podcast is supported by the Tally Roo…

In Tally Room podcast here @cmonnox.bsky.social talked about the ACT system and how different it is because the Chief Minister is elected by the parliament from scratch at the start of every term. www.tallyroom.com.au/60946

Labor asks Deloitte to design universal childcare system as PM eyes political legacy Exclusive: Government could redirect billions in existing spending on the childcare subsidy and introduce a daily flat fee for families

Such a fundamental piece of policy, why wouldn’t we keep the design and architecture in the public sector? We should have the capability. This contract is worth at least $7.5m - if Labor wants to reduce reliance on consultants, this isn't how you do it.

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

JOURNALIST: Good morning. Just a question on AI. Will your Government ensure that AI giants don’t mine copyright of the content without having to compensate artists and creators? PRIME MINISTER: I have seen some of the comments that are there. My Government's a government that supports the arts. I think across the board, AI is obviously a complex issue, it's something that is an emerging technology, something that will change the way that we live and work, and engage with each other. AI has the potential for massive productivity benefits. I saw - I'm not sure what outlet you're from - but I saw a report just last night about healthcare and AI that showed a doctor talking about how positive it has been for him, on 7.30 last night on the ABC. We need to engage in discourse about how we make sure that we maximise the benefits but minimise any of the other factors that need to be considered. We as a society will work that through. It's good there's debate about it, but copyright and intellectual property is important. JOURNALIST: Just another question on AI if that's OK? PRIME MINISTER: Sure. JOURNALIST: Jim Chalmers said Labor had no plans to water down copyright laws. The Government has said before it had no plans to do something and then has done it. Are you able to guarantee the creatives of Australia that you won't water down copyright laws? PRIME MINISTER: Jim Chalmers answered the question.

PM was asked about the AI copyright thing today.

How the tech industry wants you to think about AI | Fiona Katauskas It doesn’t

Algorithm and blues- my #AI #Auspol cartoon for @australia.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Productivity Commission’s shortsighted recommendations are a blueprint for theft of nation’s creative and cultural assets The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is dismayed by recommendations proposed by the Productivity Commission today, including its resistance to much-needed legislation and regulation that would…

PRESS RELEASE: Productivity Commission’s shortsighted recommendations are a blueprint for theft of nation’s creative and cultural assets
meaa.io/41fM7n1
#StopAITheft

Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it Interim report on digital economy also mulls changes to privacy rules and copyright collections to help harness AI’s benefits

Idk why the productivity commission believes productivity can be derived by giving away other people's labour for free to companies with way too much money. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Protesters in Tel Aviv took to the streets carrying flour bags and pictures of malnourished children from Gaza, calling for the end of the war on Gaza and the hunger.

#protest #TelAviv #Gaza #hunger #IsraelGazawar #Israel

Thanks for having me on @benraue.com. I'm quite ok with extra Hare-Clark elections, even if Tasmanians aren't.

The WA Government has let foreign oil company Chevron turn Western Australia's second largest Island, formerly a pristine Class A nature reserve into a "contamination site."

Here is what it looks like now.

State capture and regulatory failure.
www.boilingcold.com.au/governments-...

The wrong way to respond to antisemitism • Robert Manne Jillian Segal’s proposals won’t only erode free speech but could also worsen the problem she was asked to tackle

Robert Manne in @insidestory.bsky.social on the Segel report into antisemitism insidestory.org.au/the-wrong-wa...

AI runs on dirty power and the public pays the price Data centers are setting back sustainable energy goals across the country. They also contribute to air and water pollution, Business Insider found.

Amazon doesn’t make its power use public, but it’s “on pace to command the highest electricity demand” of all of the companies that Business Insider examined recently. One of those is Google, which admits that its power use has DOUBLED in the last 4 years.

www.businessinsider.com/ai-runs-dirt...

Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group "Advance" - The Klaxon Antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal and her husband are among the biggest funders of far-right group "Advance”, which spreads hateful propaganda and racist tropes.

🚨Antisemitism boss Jillian Segal and her husband are the second biggest funders of far-right group "Advance". The extremist lobby group spreads online racism and xenophobia, including directly targeting Palestinians...
theklaxon.com.au/hrgd

Special Envoy’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance condemns hate speech, including antisemitism, as a threat to democracy, a free media, and equality. Antisemitism, as a form of racism, should be met with the p...

@withmeaa.bsky.social statement on Special Envoy's Plan to Combat Antisemitism www.meaa.org/mediaroom/sp...

Are we getting in our own way? • Inside Story The American bestseller Abundance is making waves in Australia, but its key argument has less force on this side of the Pacific

A very good review of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's new book which is receiving faddish levels of interest in political and policy cirlces in Australia. *Whispers* regulation is actually good... insidestory.org.au/are-we-getti...

Flurry of emails exchanged between Ita Buttrose and David Anderson before Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking Federal court file indicates Buttrose, Anderson and ABC chief content officer communicated on 19 December before Lattouf was taken off air on 20 December

The ABC (my employer) needs to stop defending this case against Lattouf and settle - including an apology and reinstatement. They should not have taken her off air in such a manner. Her colleagues stand with her.

A line chart titled “Annual CO₂ emissions” shows the global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry from 1950 to 2023. The y-axis represents emissions in billions of tonnes (t), ranging from 0 to 40 billion t. The x-axis covers the years from 1950 to 2023. The chart presents a steady increase in emissions from approximately 5 billion tonnes in 1950 to over 36 billion tonnes in 2023. Key features include: A consistent upward trend from 1950 through the early 1970s. A brief plateau and dip around 1980–1983. A strong growth trend resuming in the late 1980s. A sharp increase during the 2000s. A slight drop around 2008–2009, likely due to the global financial crisis. A major dip in 2020, attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. A rapid rebound in emissions after 2020, continuing the upward trend to a new high in 2023. A blue line labeled “World” traces these changes over time. Below the chart, the data source is listed as the Global Carbon Budget (2024), and the graphic is credited to OurWorldInData.org with a Creative Commons license (CC BY). A footnote explains that the data includes emissions from coal, oil, gas, flaring, cement, and steel, but excludes land-use changes such as deforestation.

I get annoyed at the narrative that all the awareness and work on climate change hasn't done anything. Yes, global CO₂ emissions indeed continue to climb, but we don't know the counterfactual. When I was in grad school, we were on track for 5°C of warming. Now it's below 3°C. That's progress.

It is shocking that 22 years after the US, UK and Australia went to war in Iraq based on the WMD lies, we see mainstream media headlines today running Trump's Iran "weeks away" from a nuclear weapon claim without explicitly framing it as directly contradicted by his own intelligence community

Anyway.

In today's @smh, one of my favourite - and most important - things I've ever written.

It's about a special club in Griffith, NSW, and the needless rigidity of Australian soccer administration.

www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...

McKinsey leans on AI to do junior workers’ tasks The firm is increasingly drafting proposals and making slides using artificial intelligence, as the new technology reshapes how consultancies operate.

What company would be stupid enough to pay McKinsey the huge fees that they charge knowing that half the "advice" they receive is AI generated? www.afr.com/companies/pr...

"Trump’s unbridling of AI, crypto, and dirty energy supply must be understood as a singular, inseparable process. In effect, Big Tech has thrown Big Oil & Gas a lifeline by fabricating speculative justifications for fossil fuel expansion"

Fantastic piece by @kennystancil.bsky.social -->>

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans

NYT: Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans (Gift Link)

“Mr. Trump could potentially use such information to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics, Democratic lawmakers and critics have said.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t...

On par with those who want to bring back conscription

The great productivity debate is totally unproductive Productivity is dominating headlines, but is it really possible to measure in Australia?

Trying to get my economics-averse head around productivity and have found both of these articles very helpful.
1. Ross Gittins www.rossgittins.com/2025/05/want...
2. Ian Verrender www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...

Ruston asked AI why Liberals lost – and 'no clear theme' emerged After the disastrous 2025 election result for the Coalition, Ruston says she asked an “off the shelf” large-language model, commonly referred to as AI, what people thought about the party and the election results, and that the result returned “no clear theme”. Actually more than anything, it showed me that there were so many different issues that Australians were considering when they went to the ballot box to vote that I think it shows us we absolutely have to look at everything. There was no clear theme apart from quite clearly the Australian public went to the ballot box and didn’t vote for us. The senator continued: Basically, it said that the product offer that we took to the Australian public, Australians did not support quite clearly and we need to go back to the drawing board and have a look at all of the issues that factored into it. Many issues have been ventilated over the last two weeks by colleagues, by commentators and every single one of them deserved to be considered.

she what www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Me in The Guardian re the latest round of anti-preferencer nonsense

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I bloğued: Accomplishments

orangejuiceandryvita.com/234/accompli... #blog

RFK Jr. Swims in Washington Creek That Flows With Sewage and Bacteria

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, posted photos on Sunday of himself and his grandchildren swimming in a contaminated Washington creek where swimming is not allowed because it is used for sewer runoff.

As someone who has had the privilege of working with Mark Dreyfus and have seen up close the breadth & depth of his intellect and his passion for progressive reform (not just through the law) I can say that it would be a serious act of self sabotage for the Labor caucus to roll him from Cabinet.