Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:07): (2293) My adjournment matter is for the minister for manufacturing, and I say the minister for manufacturing because he also has productivity within that remit. Last week I attended the CEO forum and I was pleased to be able to speak and participate in some of the panel discussions. Four hundred Victorian CEOs were in the one room in the Sofitel on Collins Street. It was an extraordinary opportunity to mix with and hear from the absolute cream of Victorian business about where they see the future going, particularly with AI and the role of AI in productivity. There is a stark contrast between what Victoria is doing and what New South Wales has done. One of the clear lessons you see across every jurisdiction is that no state or nation can go from zero to 100 in terms of engaging with the AI challenge overnight. In fact it is a quite particularly staged exercise where you must go through layers: the ethical layers, the regulatory layers, the investment layers, the guardrail layers and the implementation layer as well.

This takes time and investment by government in that process, and it is a very competitive space, because as much as AI is a technological race, it is also a jurisdictional race. The jurisdictions that have been willing to do that work and invest in that work are the ones who are now reaping the benefits. The contrast between Victoria and New South Wales could not be starker. They have been at this for five years. They set up statutory bodies, they had clear investment structures and they know how things such as power and water are going to be paid for – not socialised into everybody’s taxes. They have already conducted their ethical conversations and they have already looked at the frameworks around the world. We have done none of these things – none of them. This will be a compounding problem on AI and our productivity gains, because we cannot turn around tomorrow and expect that we are going to reap the results that other states will who have been at it for five years. We only have 10 months left in this Parliament, so I fear anything we do now in this Parliament, even in this next budget, will be too late. The action I seek from the minister is to please, please show a sense of urgency and have some resources and forward thinking put into Victoria’s AI policy.