Labor MP Ed Husic has urged the Albanese government to take a harder line on artificial intelligence companies, arguing that letting the sector police itself has already proved ineffective and that weakening copyright laws to suit AI firms would conflict with Labor’s values. His intervention matters because it highlights internal pressure on the government ahead of the prime minister’s major AI speech, particularly over how Australia should balance innovation, regulation and protection for creative workers.

Husic said Labor’s founding belief in “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work” meant creators should be properly paid if their work is used to train AI models. The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance is also calling for stronger copyright protections, while cabinet continues to debate reform options amid lobbying from big tech and proposals for special exemptions. According to documents released under freedom of information laws, Treasury warned that Anthropic was likely to argue existing copyright settings were holding back datacentre development in Australia, underlining the commercial pressure on ministers as policy decisions approach.