‘Be careful': Barnaby's stern warning on WFH
It comes as governments and businesses around the world scramble to figure out guardrails on AI while reaping its economic benefits.
Decision makers flocking to Canberra for Labor's Economic Reform Roundtable have already flagged the challenge as a hot topic in the productivity-centric talks.
Amid a flare up in debate over flexible employment arrangements, sparked by union demands for a four-day work week, Mr Joyce on Monday took aim at recent changes giving employees the right to ask to work from home.
He said it was 'encouraging people not to employ people'. Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce says 'AI is coming' for clerical workers. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia
'You can't just say you're going to work from home today or you won't have a job,' the former deputy prime minister told Seven.
'I think you've got to be careful.
'If your job is a keyboard, yourself and a computer, AI is coming.'
He said if he were a clerical worker, he would 'be doing everything to keep your jobs because if people can prove they don't need to come to the office then (they) can prove (you) can be replaced by AI'.
Asked if he had an idea how to protect jobs, Mr Joyce said he did not know if it was possible.
But he did welcome the idea of getting more Australians into trades.
'They should because I can assure you from my accountancy days, electricians overwhelmingly earn more money than people who have graduated with arts degrees or junior degrees,' he said.
'Doctors can go and make good money, but AI won't be able to turn itself into a plumber or itself into an electrician or a chippy so trades are a place where you can sustain a good level of employment.'
In a report released this month, the Productivity Commission warned against taking a 'heavy-handed' approach to AI regulation, saying to do so could stifle innovation and cause Australia to fall behind other countries.
Instead, it recommended making existing regulations fit-for-purpose.
That included plugging gaps around consumer protection, privacy, and copyright.
The commission said AI-specific regulation should only be considered as a 'last resort' for specific use cases where existing laws were clearly insufficient to mitigate harms.
It also called for a pause on mandatory 'guardrails' for high-risk AI until the reviews of existing regulations were complete.
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