Australian politics live updates: Albanese flies to COP31 in Turkey, Chalmers ‘undermined’, Bowen’s address

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Australia will consider hardening its laws to criminally prosecute people responsible for AI breaches in the wake of OpenAI’s hack of Services Australia earlier this year.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced the findings of a rapid review into the incident which included 18 recommendations.

Mr Albanese had revealed the hack while attending the UN General Assembly in New York in September where he confronted Open AI’s founder Sam Altman.

A rogue AI agent had acted autonomously when researching health data and accessed non-public statistics on Medicare, in a breach which took months for the US tech firm to identify.

At the time, Mr Albanese and colleagues said they would consider referring the matter to the Australian Federal Police to assess whether criminal charges were possible.

But on Tuesday, the PM said his government needed to make sure that Australian law “catches up with what is a very fast-changing world”.

The related recommendation says that Australia is considering a standalone

failure to prevent” offence, which would criminalise instances where the company is responsible for developing an AI model that engages in harmful conduct.

It could be applied to a company which fails to take reasonable steps to prevent that harm.

However, creating such an offence could take some time for Australia to develop with just one Parliament sitting week to go before politicians break for summer.

Anthony Albanese has praised Jim Chalmers - declaring he will keep keep his job as Treasurer through to the next election - while insisting his government remains united despite acknowledgements from a senior colleague of damaging leaks.

Environment Minister Murray Watt on Monday urged his Labor colleagues to stop “undermining” Dr Chalmers, following weeks of reports highlighting apparent tensions between the Treasurer and Prime Minister over the budget.

“This is a Treasurer who’s produced a couple of budgets surpluses, lower deficits, is producing economic reform, and we are continuing to work through with the midyear economic forecast,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

“My government is a united government. We work together in a cohesive way. We are working together on the range of challenges, but opportunities as well. That our government faces, that the world is facing.”

Anthony Albanese has confirmed plans for an AI safety regulator to be rolled out in a global first.

The Prime Minister announced the guardrails set to be installed earlier this year, before revealing blueprints fo the structure on Tuesday at Parliament House.

“We have seen what happens in other parts of the world without guard rails or standards,” he said. “Social licence has slipped while safety and security have been undermined.

“We need to ensure that we get it right.”

He said the government would roll out “mandatory AI safety and security protections” as part of new legislation.

Those protections would be assessed and evaluated by the AI safety regulator, which will have the power to penalise companies through six recommendations.

THe Prime Minister said some of the evaluations from the safety regulator include the need to maintain security, identify and manage risk, provide notification of incidents, allow independent evaluations and respond to updated standards.

Chris Bowen has admitted Labor has “more work to do” to achieve lower electricity prices.

The Climate Minister used his opening address at COP31 in Turkey to call on nations to take faster action on “electrification”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to jet off on Tuesday afternoon for the UN climate talks, where leaders are expected to make a pledge to have 35 per cent of the world powered by electricity by 2035.

But Coalition has raised concerns about their COP31 attendance and warned the duo to counter “green tariffs” and “harebrained ideas” at the conference which would lock Australia into stricter EU climate rules.

Read Caitlyn Rintoul’s full report here.

Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino has leapt to the defence of senior colleague Jim Chalmers, declaring the Treasurer is “absolutely” safe in his role and faced no threats from Labor rivals.

“The Treasurer is leading a very ambitious program,” Malino told Nine’s Today show on Tuesday.

The comments come a day after senior Cabinet minister Murray Watt called on colleagues to stop leaking and undermining Dr Chalmers following the controversial budget in May.

Opposition Senator Sarah Henderson has seized on the disunity in Labor telling reporters: “Jim Chalmers is toxic within his own party”.

“It is no wonder that Labor’s backbench is briefing out against Jim Chalmers.”

Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton has ruled out taking the job of Treasurer if Dr Chalmers were to be replaced in a reshuffle with a one word response: “no”.

“I’m very focused on my job,” Mr Chalton said on Tuesday morning. “I’m working on artificial intelligence now. One of the biggest issues facing Australia. I’m not interested in the next job.

“I’m interested in this job”.

The Cabinet Secretary said Jim Chalmers was doing a “good job at a difficult time” and declared the embattled Treasurer would still be in his position this time next year.

Speaking a day after senior colleague Murray Watt called on colleagues to stop leaking and undermining Dr Chalmers, the rising Labor star has publicly endorsed the Treasurer.

“I think the Labor Party supports Jim Chalmers because he’s doing a good job at a difficult time,” Charlton told Seven’s Sunrise.

“It’s no secret that the Australian economy is facing big challenges that Australians are feeling, and those are challenges that are impacting every single country around the world. And Jim Chalmers is really facing those challenges, whether it be getting inflation down by delivering two budget surpluses, or helping young Australians to buy their first home. These are big, difficult challenges, and the treasurer is facing them, and that’s why he has the support of his colleagues.”

Pressed on who in Labor could be behind anonymous comments suggesting Chalmers should be replaced, Charlton told channel 7: “I think the caucus supports Jim Chalmers because they know he’s doing a good job in a difficult time.

“I’m not going to speculate on leaks that aren’t people aren’t putting their name to; what I will say is what I see every day is people supporting the treasurer in the difficult job that he is doing,” he added.

Chris Bowen announced overnight a new Climate and Energy Partnership between Australia and Denmark, following talks with Australian-born Queen Mary of Denmark during COP proceedings on Monday.

The deal was touted as a way to create new “economic opportunities, technology development, investment and jobs”.

The Climate Change Minister said areas of focus include offshore wind and renewable energy deployment, energy efficiency, industrial decarbonisation, energy storage and renewable hydrogen, all areas with strong potential for job creation.

“Together, we are strengthening international energy and climate cooperation while creating new industries, new investment and secure jobs in both our countries.,” he said.

Climate Tsar Chris Bowen did not mention rising electricity prices or the struggles of Australian households once in his 790 word address at the UN COP31 summit in Antalya, Türkiye overnight.

Instead, Bowen took the stage alongside Turkish COP31 President Murat Kurum to launch a push for a global target of lifting electricity’s share of world energy consumption to 35 per cent by 2035.

Addressing delegates from India, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and Europe, Bowen argued that swapping fossil fuels for clean power “helps us better shield households from volatile bills and price shocks.”

Rather than acknowledging domestic power bills, Bowen focused on international finance pipelines, climate impacts in Nepal and the Pacific, and the global transition to renewables.

He also admitted that global emissions are set to “overshoot 1.5 degrees” target, while boasting that over $2.2 trillion flowed into clean energy worldwide last year.

One of the Prime Minister’s closest allies, Environment Minister Murray Watt has called on colleagues to stop undermining Treasurer Jim Chalmers, praising his fellow Queenslander’s record and reminding Labor MPs to “work together”.

​Asked by The Nightly​ whether he’d “like to see an end to the undermining and leaking against your Treasurer?”, the Environment Minister and senior Left faction member responded: “Yes, I would”.

“As a member of the Government, I take seriously the responsibility to work together to support Government policies and also to get our work to support each other in what are very difficult times.”

“I think that Jim Chalmers is doing an excellent job as a Treasurer in what are very difficult economic times, many of the features that are impacting on our economy are sort of well outside any treasurer’s control, and I very much support Jim Chalmers in his efforts.”

Read Andrew Greene’s full report ​here​.