I’d like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I am speaking today, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Thank you Cosima Marriner, James Daggar-Nickson and the AFR team for hosting this summit and giving me the opportunity to be with you.

In this speech I want to do three things —

First, I want to make the case that Australia stands at a fork in the road on artificial intelligence — we can either build this industry or rent it, and that this choice will shape our prosperity and security for decades to come.

Second, I want to argue the single greatest threat to our AI success is not a shortage of talent, capital or energy, but a shortage of trust — and that around the world, we already see what happens when that trust is eroded.

And third, I want to show you what we are doing about it: how a government that builds public trust is not slowing the industry down, but rather laying the only foundation on which it can grow in a manner that is sustainable, informed by our values, and aligned with our interests.

Let me begin with a proposition I expect will be accepted by most here today —

The global AI wave will reshape competitive advantage and decide which countries are prosperous and secure in the second half of this century, and which are not.

As I have said before, we are in a sliding doors moment.

We can build a world-class Australian AI industry, or we can permanently rent that capability abroad — importing, in perpetuity, the most important technology of the age.

As my senior colleague the Minister for Industry and Innovation, Tim Ayres, has put it: “The biggest risk from AI may not be adopting it. The biggest risk may be being left behind.”

The good news is that we have what it takes to succeed.

More than 1,500 AI start-ups. Some of the best solar and wind resources on earth, and the land and the trades to turn them into power at scale.

World class data centre companies, high quality research, a strong record of commercialisation — and a population that adopts new technology faster than almost anyone.

Our potential is not in doubt. What is in doubt is whether we can nourish the one thing that makes all of it possible.

Trust.

This single factor, more than chips, more than capital, more than energy, will determine whether an Australian AI industry thrives or stalls.

And I want to put the argument to you bluntly, in a room full of people who build and back this technology: trust is not the price we pay for growth. Trust produces it. It is not a constraint to be tolerated. It is an input to be invested in — as deliberately as we invest in chips, or skills, or power.

* * *

The Government has a clear national AI plan that rests on three pillars — capture the opportunity, share the benefits, and keep Australians safe.

Bringing this plan to life however means confronting the fact that, as it currently stands, the trust of Australians in AI is low. 

The most authoritative global study we have — the University of Melbourne and KPMG survey of more than 48,000 people across 47 countries — found that just 30 per cent of Australians believe the benefits of AI outweigh the risks. That is the lowest level of any country surveyed. Not in the bottom quartile. Last.

It gets worse the deeper you look. Seventy-eight per cent of Australians are worried about a range of negative outcomes from AI. Only 36 per cent of us are willing to trust it — well below the global average. We report fewer of its benefits than people in other countries: 55 per cent of Australians say they’ve experienced a benefit from AI, against 73 per cent globally. And we are among the least trained and least curious: just 24 per cent of Australians have had any AI training, against 39 per cent worldwide, and we rank dead last on the planet for interest in even learning more about it.

So why are Australians the most sceptical people on earth about this technology?

It is tempting to reach for the easy answer — that we are somehow timid, or backward-looking, or anti-technology. But that explanation is wrong. We are not a country of laggards. Australians took up smartphones, contactless payments, and online banking faster than almost anyone. Adopting is in our DNA.

What Australians dislike is not technology. It is the feeling that technology is being done to them rather than for them. That the benefits flow offshore, to a handful of very large companies, while the costs — to their jobs, their privacy, their power bills, their neighbourhoods — land at home.

Australians are not refusing the future.

But they are asking a fair question: who is this actually for?

And until we answer that question convincingly, scepticism is not irrational. It is the reasonable response of people who suspect they are being asked to carry the risks while someone else hoovers up the rewards.

* * *

Around the world, we are now watching in real time what happens when trust runs out.

The United States is now living through a fierce AI backlash, with data centres as the flashpoint. In 2026, legislation to pause or ban new data centre construction has been introduced in at least eleven states. Community opposition has blocked an estimated $18 billion of projects and delayed another $46 billion. Data centres have become a defining issue in the midterm elections.

And much of that opposition is well founded. In PJM, America’s largest electricity market, the market’s own monitor found data centres were responsible for sharp price increases. The typical family there faces a rise of around $70 a month by 2028, for demand they did not create. On water, some stories are even starker. Like Georgia residents Beverly and Jeff Morris, who turned on their tap one day and nothing came out, months after a data centre broke ground next door.

The lesson from around the world is one we should be humble enough to learn: a country that grows its AI industry by running roughshod over public trust is being self-defeating.

* * *

This is why the Albanese Government’s approach to AI is built on trust and confidence. We are not regulating to slow the industry down, or to hobble innovation, or to be seen to be doing something. We are doing it because we are convinced it is the only way the country succeeds.

The Albanese Government has a clear national AI plan that rests on three pillars — capture the opportunity, share the benefits, and keep Australians safe.

Each of these three pillars are essential for building trust. The first pillar means Australians can trust that we have domestic not just foreign AI, the second means Australians can trust that they will share in the benefits, and the third means Australians can trust that they will be protected from the risks.

There should be no doubt about our resolve to do what is necessary to give Australians confidence that the growth of AI is sustainable, safe, and aligned with our national interests.

I want to spend a few minutes on data centres — not because AI policy reduces to data centres, but because they are an example of this approach in action.

Data centres are a genuinely enormous opportunity for Australia.

If we get it right, data centres will do much more than create construction jobs or attract investment. They will strengthen our energy system by underwriting new generation and transmission. They will create demand for Australian engineering, software, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing. They will attract world-class talent from abroad and create entrepreneurs here at home. They will give Australian researchers, startups and businesses access to the computing power they need. And they will ensure that more of the value created by the digital economy is captured here in Australia, rather than offshore.

That is the real prize. Not simply hosting the infrastructure of the AI age, but using it to build a more productive economy, create better jobs, lift living standards, and support a vibrant culture that helps create new Australian businesses.

Australia is superbly placed to capture more than its share of data centre investment. We have the renewable energy. We have the land. We have the political and financial stability, the security, and the geography.

But we will only capture that opportunity if we hold onto the public’s confidence. And we can already see the early warning signs here at home. In Lane Cove West in Sydney, a cluster of data centres has grown up in a small business park hard against homes, a school, childcare centres and bushland. Residents are concerned. The council is considering a moratorium.

This is the American story, beginning to write its first Australian chapter — and we have a window to get ahead of this and make sure it ends differently.

So the government has chosen to get out in front. Early in the build-out — not after the damage is done — the Government has set tough, clear expectations for data centre developers. We expect them to bring their own new renewable power, so they add clean generation rather than competing for what’s already there. We expect them to pay their full share of transmission and distribution costs, so they are not subsidised by the family down the road. We expect them to engage genuinely with local communities, and not to complicate access to water.

People have told me these expectations are too tough. They have told me they will scare off investment. I understand the argument. But I think it has the logic exactly backwards. Unless we can look an Australian family in the eye and tell them — truthfully — that data centres will not push up their power bills, will not threaten their water, and will not degrade their neighbourhood, this industry will spend the next decade on the back foot, fighting the same losing battle we are watching play out overseas. The rules are not the obstacle to investment. They are what makes the investment durable.

And there is a foundation to work from — notwithstanding the boom in data centre investment in Australia the AFR just last week reported the energy regulator had announced that household power prices are set to fall across most of Australia from July due to record output from wind, solar and batteries.

But there is zero room for complacency and that is why we are working hard to implement our expectations in partnership with the states and territories, and to achieve national consistency.

Data centres are one of the biggest drivers of new energy demand – we're acting to make sure they strengthen not strain our energy grid. 

If data centres want to benefit from Australia's energy grid, we think they should play their part to strengthen it.

Minister Bowen took this approach to the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council, where the overwhelming majority of states agreed and backed the principles that data centres should pay for their grid infrastructure, offset their electricity demand with new generation and firming, and offer demand flexibility. We are now working through the implementation pathway with our counterparts in every jurisdiction.

The Albanese Government’s Data Centre Expectations are an example of regulation that builds trust and confidence. It is pro-opportunity and pro-community.

* * *

And data centres are only one front. 

In the Industry portfolio led by Minister Ayres we are, as part of our commitment in the National AI Plan, establishing the AI Safety Institute — and we are pleased to announce it is operational as of today. 

Australia’s AI Safety Institute has three goals:

• Analyse and test new AI models and applications.
• Support regulators and agencies in responding to emerging AI harms.
• Shape safe AI development, deployment and international governance in Australia's interests. 

More broadly the Attorney-General, Michelle Rowland, is progressing a second tranche of privacy reform, and Communications Minister Anika Wells is strengthening online safety. Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth is convening employers, unions and government on the challenges and opportunities of AI and the workplace, and addressing trust is a priority in these discussions. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Productivity and Competition, is examining the consumer and competition implications, and Katy Gallagher the Minister for Finance and Minister for Government Services, leads the charge on adoption within the Australian Public Service. This a whole-of-government effort with each area working to build trust and confidence.

People in our industry like to say that the most important input into AI is data. The new oil. The thing everything else depends on.

With respect, I think they’re wrong.

The countries that succeed in the AI era will not be the countries with the most chips, or the most capital, or even the most sunshine. They will be the countries that persuade their citizens that this technology is being built in their interests and that they share in the benefits.

It should not be lost upon anybody that the Labor Party has a long and proud history of working to protect our environment, our culture, and to ensure the benefits of new technology and productivity are shared by all, not just some. These are our core values.

AI is no different.

Australia has every ingredient needed to be a builder rather than a renter in the age of AI.

But only if Australians trust what we are building.

Because trust is not the price of an AI industry.

Trust is the foundation of one.