Independent senator David Pocock has accused the Prime Minister’s Office of “heavily” vetting a letter sent to Anthony Albanese from the parliamentary committee on artificial intelligence.
The wide-ranging letter called for “robust safeguards to protect Australian data”, new copyright laws and more investment in data centres.
But Senator Pocock, a committee member, said on Tuesday that when he “loaded the letter up onto my computer, there’s a whole bunch of track changes from the PM’s office”.
“So this is meant to be a letter from the committee, but clearly has been heavily vetted by the Prime Minister’s Office,” he told News24.
“I’m concerned that the major parties are working together to potentially get a preconceived outcome rather than actually listening to experts, listening to the community and saying … how do we genuinely work towards this as a country where we are actually preserving our sovereignty, where we’re doing what’s best for Australians over the long term.”
More to come