To: Kate Chaney, Independent Federal Member for Curtin
Stop the Stitch Up - Give Us a Genuine Federal Parliamentary Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence
On Wednesday 15 July 2026, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a speech at Sydney University on "AI in Australia's interests. After talking up the global impact of the government's social media ban for people under 16, he said:
And to take that example of social media one step further, imagine if the world had acted a decade ago.
Imagine the difference it would have made if these limits had been put in place when the world first grasped the risks of these platforms.
When we first understood their reach and indeed their power.
That is the opportunity – and the choice - we have now with Artificial Intelligence.
From smartphones to rooftop solar, Australians have always been enthusiastic adopters of new technology.
And AI is of course already part of our daily lives.
Not as a novelty, or a search tool.
It’s changing the way our universities teach and the way students learn.
It’s helping small business owners cut the time they spend on paperwork.
It’s driving productivity and it's driving discovery.
On the last sitting day of August - the 20th - Parliament established a Joint Select Parliamentary Committee on Artificial Intelligence. The closing date for submissions to the Inquiry - which is dominated by Labor and the Coalition with only one Independent member, Kate Chaney - is 14 September. Now only six days away and counting down.
Given the timeline, it seems to me very likely that the findings of the committee have already been decided between the two major parties. With 14 terms of reference to address in detail, a genuine inquiry would give more than 16 working days between the creation of the Committee and the closing date for submissions.
This needs to be changed: the Federal Parliament must take action to extend the period for submissions; but they won't do that unless they face serious public pressure.
Why is this important?
Contrary to Albo's rosy vision of Australian AI, and AI data centres, benefiting Australia with none of the problems - such as massive community opposition to what is mostly a technology for surveillance, intelligence gathering and consumer manipulation - AI, in Australia as elsewhere, will come at a cost to All Australians.
Recently, Coles announced that it was cutting ties with Palantir, a mass surveillance company whose owner, Peter Thiel, believes that democracy and [his] freedom are no longer compatible. Yet, on Monday 31 August, Richard Marles announced that he would be travelling to the USA with aims that included making Australia a second home for Anthropic, another US AI company - one that works with Palantir to provide AI services to clients in defence and intelligence agencies. On the same day, Treasurer Jim Chalmers released a Treasury report about the risk that Australian businesses might miss out on the benefits of AI - although there was no mention of what those benefits might be, just an assumption that they exist. And that Australian businesses should get cracking and go after them.
Recently, Coles announced that it was cutting ties with Palantir, a mass surveillance company whose owner, Peter Thiel, believes that democracy and [his] freedom are no longer compatible. Yet, on Monday 31 August, Richard Marles announced that he would be travelling to the USA with aims that included making Australia a second home for Anthropic, another US AI company - one that works with Palantir to provide AI services to clients in defence and intelligence agencies. On the same day, Treasurer Jim Chalmers released a Treasury report about the risk that Australian businesses might miss out on the benefits of AI - although there was no mention of what those benefits might be, just an assumption that they exist. And that Australian businesses should get cracking and go after them.