Politics

He has been out of politics for 60 years, and dead for almost half a century, but Robert Gordon Menzies continues to bob up with surprising frequency in the day-to-day political battles of Australia.

To understand Australia’s approach to artificial intelligence, you have to understand the colonial mindset that enfeebles Australian politicians.

The impetus for the statement was a somewhat belated acceptance that artificial intelligence was spreading through the economy more quickly and more broadly than past technologies. AI, the statement says, could be ‘larger than the Industrial Revolution, but unfolding over a vastly shorter time frame’.

Last year, Minister for the Arts Tony Burke said, ‘We have no plans, no intention, no appetite to be weakening those copyright laws.’ … Australian journalists, musicians, artists, authors and other creatives took the government at their word. That’s why it’s so alarming that the government was actively considering a proposal that would sell out the work of Australian storytellers for multinational tech companies to train their AI models.

Government intervention to address the significant economic and social impacts of gambling addiction, particularly on our children, is both justified and essential. The consequences of addiction are now well understood: the debt, the shame, the broken families, the suicides. In terms of money, Australian gamblers lose some $31.5 billion each year – the highest per capita in the world.

Panic in the Prime Minister’s Office ahead of Anthony Albanese’s departure for Fiji and Solomon Islands led to a terse but unequivocal apology for off-colour remarks he made about Australian pop idol Kylie Minogue. The worry on Monday was that the growing controversy over the comments in a podcast interview could swamp the signing of what is only Australia’s fourth defence treaty in Suva later that day.

On the cusp of parliament’s five-week winter break, Labor insiders are warmed by signs the government has One Nation’s measure, while the Coalition are floundering.

Pauline Hanson’s populist and mostly false declarations have changed little in 30 years. They are her personal grievances writ large for an audience hungry to attribute their own grievances to particular races and religions.

There was palpable relief in Labor ranks when the final sitting fortnight before the winter break saw the government, rather than Pauline Hanson, setting the agenda.

With a Victorian state election due in November, I am constantly asked to explain policy decisions or statements by Premier Jacinta Allan. I am acutely aware and embarrassed that I cannot understand, let alone explain or justify, policies or decisions I find baffling or abhorrent.