Recording industry association says it’s time for AI companies to licence content
Aria, the Australian Recording Industry Association, said it’s now time for AI companies to move forward on content licensing after Anthony Albanese’s speech on the technology boom.
Annabelle Herd, Aria’s CEO, said in a statement:
The prime minister could not have been clearer: Australian writers and musicians keep ownership and control of their work. Artists control what that work is worth, not the government and not a technology company.
Control of price, value and terms of use are what underpin a commercial licensing market. The artist decides what their work is worth and who may use it. That is how licensing works everywhere else in the world and it is how it should work here. In the prime minister’s words: anything less is theft.
This is clear message to AI companies: now is the time to get on with licensing. Right now deals are being signed across music, journalism and publishing around the world. Australia’s creative industries are ready do business.
Key events
Caitlin Cassidy
Mark Scott says there was a risk of the University of Sydney’s pro-Palestine encampment ‘blowing up’ by forcibly disbanding it
The vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, Prof. Mark Scott, has told the royal commission into antisemitism that he feared forcibly disbanding the campus’s pro-Palestine encampment could have led to it “blowing up” and causing conflict.
The encampment, established on its front lawn in mid-2024, was the first and longest running in the nation. Scott said the university “didn’t anticipate” one would be established at the university because it hadn’t been part of its “protest tradition” and there weren’t substantial preparations in place.
In line with other universities, he said their priority was to “try and see a peaceful resolution” of the encampment, but said it may have been a “real failure” not to consult further with Jewish groups.
How can we bring this encampment to a close peacefully without seeing the destruction and the turmoil that we’d seen at major universities around the world? … I still felt the risk of the encampment blowing up by forcibly ending it. Police in riot gear taking students away could have seen an encampment 10 times the size the day after. And if you look at the experience in the United States, who knows who would have been drawn in to that kind of conflict.
But I can see that our Jewish students and staff paid a price for that as the encampment dragged on. And I am sorry to them that it took so long for us to get it done. And I’m sorry we did not keep them more closely engaged in dialogue and listen more intently to them as it was going.
Recording industry association says it’s time for AI companies to licence content
Aria, the Australian Recording Industry Association, said it’s now time for AI companies to move forward on content licensing after Anthony Albanese’s speech on the technology boom.
Annabelle Herd, Aria’s CEO, said in a statement:
The prime minister could not have been clearer: Australian writers and musicians keep ownership and control of their work. Artists control what that work is worth, not the government and not a technology company.
Control of price, value and terms of use are what underpin a commercial licensing market. The artist decides what their work is worth and who may use it. That is how licensing works everywhere else in the world and it is how it should work here. In the prime minister’s words: anything less is theft.
This is clear message to AI companies: now is the time to get on with licensing. Right now deals are being signed across music, journalism and publishing around the world. Australia’s creative industries are ready do business.
Caitlin Cassidy
University of Melbourne interim vice-chancellor disputes claim of a sector-wide failure to properly adopt antisemitism definition
Interim vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne (UoM), Prof Glyn Davis AC, has pushed back on an audit conducted by the emeritus professor Greg Craven on behalf of the antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, which found no university was properly adopting a definition of antisemitism.
He told the royal commission that he didn’t accept Craven’s assessment that the UoM hadn’t incorporated a definition of antisemitism into their policies and procedures. The UoM was the first university in Australia to publicly adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism in 2023.
He said:
It has been adopted in the same sense that the commonwealth government has adopted it. That is, a statement of principle and as a working definition of antisemitism and that’s crucial … It isn’t a definition by itself that takes you to disciplinary actions. It was not written for that point. That isn’t its character …
I don’t accept that we haven’t engaged with the definition, drawn it into our policies, used it to inform our discussions. It’s part of the protocol for our appeals. It informs appeals panels when they come to make decisions. In that sense, I think it’s perhaps an overstatement.
Nick Visser
That’s all for me. Ima Caldwell will snag things from here. Enjoy the rest of your arvo.
Luca Ittimani
Business council backs Labor’s plans for AI standards
The Business Council of Australia has thrown its support behind the government’s AI approach.
Bran Black, the BCA’s chief executive, backed the new AI office, suggesting it should focus on the effect of AI on workplaces as a priority.
He supported the government’s “measured” timeline for bringing in nationally coordinated standards with plans to consult first then legislate next year.
We would always support engagement and consultation right across the economy including with different levels of government businesses, unions, community groups, and so forth. Take the time to do that and do it well.
The BCA was less supportive of Labor’s moves to mandate developers bring new energy and water infrastructure. Black said the council would push the government to instead give priority to those developers.
We can’t be too prescriptive because we are in a race and we are in a competitive contest in that regard …
AirTrunk … [has] just made a $42bn commitment to build datacentres, not in Australia, but in India. … We don’t want to see ourselves get out of step with International counterparts and that as a consequence, we would lose investment.
Boy, 5, dead after fatal crash in Perth
A five-year-old boy has died after a fatal crash between a vehicle and two pedestrians, Western Australia police said this afternoon.
Officials said the accident occurred on Tuesday about 4.25pm in Cloverdale, a suburb of Perth. A Toyota LandCruiser and two pedestrians were involved.
The boy died from his injuries and a woman, 48, was taken to the hospital for critical injuries. The driver of the vehicle was stopped at the scene and was uninjured.
An investigation is ongoing, and police are appealing for any information related to the crash, including dashcam or mobile footage.
Melissa Davey
More transparency needed around aged care investment
The outgoing inspector general of aged care, Natalie Siegel-Brown, said she has “not seen a lot of economic modelling behind a lot of the investment that we’re making” in aged care.
“I think that we should be asking for that and seeing it transparently,” she said.
Siegel-Brown addressed the National Press Club today and said the system’s means-testing asks people to contribute to their care based on how much care they need rather than what they have.
It means the sickest and poorest older Australians pay more and are the most likely to walk away from care, she said.
If we are effectively pricing people out of the very care that is designed to keep them independent at home, we’re likely pushing them towards something far more expensive to the taxpayer: residential care.
She said people return to the system much sicker, requiring far more expensive late-stage interventions.
The most important lesson here is that better outcomes do not come from bigger budgets; they come from spending the money more intelligently. And even if you park the money issue for a minute, the simple reality is the residential aged care’s capacity to absorb growing demand does not exist today, and on current trajectories, it never will.
She said people should be able to age in their own homes and their communities.
We should be doing everything in our power to reduce avoidable demand for residential aged care because we are never going to be able to build our way out of this problem.
‘Societal-level solutions’ needed for AI: Anthropic
Tom McIlroy
Anthropic says it takes seriously the new plans for AI rules and regulations outlined by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Wednesday, after forecasting the need for “societal-level solutions” to new challenges.
Jeff Bleich, the company’s general counsel, and a former US ambassador to Australia, said big change is coming. “AI will reshape democracies, economies and national security, bringing significant benefits and unprecedented challenges alike,” he said in a statement.
Anthropic has been clear for some time that societal-level solutions are needed for AI.
We respect the process articulated by the prime minister today for establishing Australia’s AI framework and take seriously Anthropic’s responsibility to meet the terms set out by the Australian Government for AI developers.
Ahead of meetings with senior cabinet ministers earlier this year, Anthropic cited Australia’s policy uncertainty as a major impediment to new investments in the country.
Nicky Winmar removed from Australian Football Hall of Fame
Nicky Winmar has been removed from the Australian Football Hall of Fame, effective immediately, the AFL commission announced today.
The body said Winmar had been found guilty of three assault charges involving violence against a woman, saying:
Under amendments to the Australian Football Hall of Fame Charter adopted in 2023, the AFL Commission can remove an inductee if they have been charged with or found guilty of an indictable offence and/or if the inductee engages in conduct which the Commission considers is prejudicial to the interests of the AFL or is conduct which brings the AFL, the inductee, or Australian Football into disrepute.
Craig Drummond, the chair of the AFL commission, said in a statement:
The Commission has a responsibility to protect the integrity and reputation of that honour.
Violence against women has no place. Not in our community, not in our game, and not in the values the Australian Football Hall of Fame seeks to uphold.
The Commission acknowledges Nicky Winmar’s significant contribution to Australian Football and his place in our history. However, the recent findings against him render inappropriate his place in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Luca Ittimani
Datacentres ‘largely agree’ with new energy and water mandates, says peak body
The head of the Data Centres Australia welcomed Anthony Albanese’s speech, saying the sector agrees with plans to make developers pay for their own energy and water infrastructure.
Belinda Dennett, the developer peak body’s CEO, said the prime minister had made clear what Australia could lose if it didn’t build AI infrastructure. She said:
It was great to hear him really outline that Australia wants this investment, that we’re leaning into it, that he wants to make sure we don’t miss this opportunity.
Dennett was unfazed by the PM raising the prospect of requiring datacentres to offset their energy and water use by paying for new infrastructure.
We’ve been talking about it now since March, a lot of that stuff. Certainly, my members already do, in terms of offsetting their energy with renewable energy, paying for energy connections …
We’re driven to be sustainable on water, so the devil will always be in the detail, but I think we largely agree. This is what we have to do as a sector and we’re committed to that.
Melissa Davey
‘This is happening at scale’: inspector general on aged care failures
Siegel-Brown shared the story of an older woman whose GP prescribed her a pair of crutches.
“The value of those crutches about 50 bucks,” Siegel-Brown said.
But under the federal government’s Support at Home program, “those same $50 crutches cost the taxpayer $1,800 and a three-month wait”.
She said the government funding those crutches requires an in-home occupational therapist assessment to confirm crutches are needed even though “a GP had already said it was necessary, so she waited for three months”.
In that time, her risk of falling increased dramatically. Her confidence dropped. Her world shrank. And if she had fallen, we would have been dealing with hospitalisation, rapid decline, and if she could get a place, residential aged care, which would cost the taxpayer about $120,000 to $300,000.
I hear versions of it all the time. This is happening at scale.
We’ve still built a system that would rather spend 36 times as much to delay support than what it would have cost to deliver it immediately.
Inefficiency is built into aged care system by design, inspector general says
Melissa Davey
The outgoing inspector general of aged care, Natalie Siegel-Brown, is addressing the National Press Club and said inefficiency is built into the aged care system by design.
The poorest Australians are suffering the most when they try to access support and care as they age, she said.
We’ve been behaving as if we have to choose between dignity and fiscal responsibility. As if independence, meaning and connection in older age, in our homes, in our communities, is somehow in tension with economic outcomes.
The answer to an ageing population is not more beds, she said, but “the real question should be how do we stop generating that demand in the first place” by supporting people to age well at home.
PM promises ‘strongest possible protection’ for Australian creatives against AI theft
Josh Butler
Dipping back to Anthony Albanese’s speech, the government is promising “world-leading” protections in the areas of consumer safety, copyright and environmental standards when it comes to artificial intelligence.
Australian creatives – artists, musicians, writers and journalists – have been worried for some time about the potential weakening of copyright law, with large AI companies calling for greater access to local content. But in addition to his speech, the PM’s office has released a statement promising “the strongest possible protection for Australian artists and media”. It said:
Our approach will ensure Australian writers, artists and journalists retain ownership over their work, meaning no company should use Australian creative works to train AI without the artist’s control.
The statement says the government wants to “ensure Australia can capture the opportunity, share the benefits and keep Australians safe” but at the same time as not “undercutting conditions, dividing communities or damaging our environment”.
Albanese claims the government’s new standards for copyright and datacentres will be “the first to be legislated by a government worldwide”.
More information on a set of “whole-of-government AI consumer safety priorities” will be unveiled “in coming weeks”.
Caitlin Cassidy
University of Melbourne considering further crackdown on protests, royal commission hears
Continuing his royal commission testimony, the interim vice-chancellor at the University of Melbourne, Prof Glyn Davis, said earlier the institution is considering requiring posters put up around the university to identify the individuals or organisations who authorised them.
Davis was asked about the occupation of UoM academic, Prof Steven Prawer’s office in 2024. Prawer appeared before the royal commission into antisemitism on Tuesday, where he spoke of offensive stickers and posters accusing him of genocide.
Davis said it “beggared belief” that an academic could be treated how Prawer was and said his request to identify organisations or individuals who authorised posters was a “dilemma” that hadn’t been settled:
There’s an assumption that we will make a series of policy changes in the light of this royal commission and the other things that are under way … If you’re not prepared to put your name to a statement, I don’t think academic or freedom of speech applies.
Davis pushed back, however, at Prawer’s requests for the students disciplined over the occupation of his office to be identified. He said privacy and confidentiality was hinged on dealing with “young adults” and attempting to “not to make a stain on the rest of their lives by an adverse decision by the university”.
‘We can make AI stand for ‘Australia’s Interests’,’ Albanese says
Albanese closes out his speech with this message:
If we move with purpose now, if we back ourselves, if we trust in our values and invest in our people, if we set our national standards high, then I have every confidence that Australia can seize this moment and make it our own.
We can make AI, indeed, stand for ‘Australia’s Interests’.
