Potential of AI is immense but it could cost jobs, says productivity chief
Daisy Dumas
Australia’s productivity commissioner says that the opportunities of artificial intelligence are “immense” – but will deliver some job losses.
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 last night, Danielle Wood said the prediction by the chief executive of the US AI company Anthropic that the technology could potentially wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years was “pretty extraordinary” and “out of whack with other reasonable projections” she had seen.
Instead, she said the more routine elements of jobs will be taken over by AI, “freeing people up to do the uniquely human parts of jobs”.
“Am I going to sit here and say, ‘No jobs are going to go?’ No, clearly not. There will be some impacts,” she said, adding that AI will also create jobs that “we can’t even imagine yet”.
“There’s a huge amount of opportunity, and I think we have to remember that … I know so many people that are now using it in their jobs and they can see the way that it is freeing up some of those less good parts of their jobs.”
Josh Butler spoke to Tim Ayres about this very issue, in a story out today, who said there would be “a lot to gain” from embracing AI, particularly highlighting potential boosts to productivity and economic growth.
Ayres, who grew up on a cattle farm near Lismore, said both white-collar and traditional blue-collar jobs could reap benefits from adopting automation and new technology – and that “the cold reality that the only thing more disruptive in the labour market is standing back and allowing Australia to become a cul-de-sac in technological terms”.
Read the full story here:
Key events
Tom McIlroy
Leeser says PM should urgently set Trump meeting on sidelines of G7
Coalition frontbencher Julian Leeser says Anthony Albanese needs to urgently secure a meeting with US president Donald Trump in Canada next week, following the announcement of the Aukus review overnight. He told ABC radio:
This is part of a growing list of issues in our relationship with the United States that took another hit.
Leeser called on Albanese to guarantee a direct meeting on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada. Negotiations about a possible meeting have been ongoing but could be slowed down by sanctions put in place by Labor on right-wing members of the Israeli government this week. Leeser said:
AUKUS is so important to Australia’s security. It was originally Coalition policy. It has bipartisan support. But it’s very important that the prime minister actually puts the case here.
Leeser said Albanese opted not to go to the United States to lobby the White House on trade tariffs. But on the submarine pact, Leeser says the prime minister needs “to ensure that the commitments that we were promised are secured.”
Turnbull suggests Australia should ‘wake up’ and review Aukus ourselves
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has chimed in amid the US review of the Aukus. He wrote on X:
The UK is conducting a review of AUKUS. The US DoD is conducting a review of AUKUS. But Australia, which has the most at stake, has no review. Our Parliament to date has been the least curious and least informed. Time to wake up?
The UK is conducting a review of AUKUS. The US DoD is conducting a review of AUKUS. But Australia, which has the most at stake, has no review. Our Parliament to date has been the least curious and least informed. Time to wake up?
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) June 11, 2025
Israeli minister says sanctions imposed by Australia and other countries ‘don’t interest me’
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and one of the pair hit with sanctions, mocked them in a speech overnight. RN Breakfast had a transcript of his remarks:
I don’t know what I’m going to do now with my assets in the UK and my bank accounts in New Zealand. Thank God, I have no assets either in Israel or abroad.
Those who acquire assets acquire worries, you see. These sanctions don’t interest me, and I have no business in these antisemitic countries.
You can read more about the sanctions here:
Shadow attorney general says Coalition has ‘real questions’ over sanctions imposed on Israeli officials
Julian Leeser, the shadow attorney general, said the Coalition has “real questions” about the sanctions announced yesterday against two Israeli cabinet ministers. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said at the time the ministers were “inciting violence against Palestinians” in the West Bank. Leeser told RN Breakfast the sanctions were a “very serious step”, saying they suggested Australia was lowering the threshold for applying them:
The big question here is whether this is a new standard that will be applied to the public comments of officials from other countries. Because if this is the new standard, it will have serious implications for our international relations.
Leeser said the two Israeli ministers’ far-right views don’t reflect those of the Coalition and the bipartisan support in Australia for a two-state solution.
People are right to disagree and condemn, but what the government is doing here is it’s using a sanctions regime which was designed to deal with human rights abuses and terrorist acts … But these people are being sanctioned not because of terrorist acts or human rights abuses, but because of public comments.
And if that standard is applied in other places too, this will cause serious issues in our international relations.
Richard Marles downplays Trump review into Aukus, calling it a ‘natural’ step
Josh Butler
The defence minister, Richard Marles, downplayed the Trump administration’s review into the Aukus program, saying it was “natural” that the US would take a look at the submarines and capabilities sharing program. Despite the review announced overnight, Marles said he had experienced “clear and consistent support” for Aukus from the United States. Marles said in a statement:
We are committed to AUKUS and we look forward to working closely with the US on the review. The United States advised Australia and the UK of the review.
It is natural that the Administration would want to examine this major undertaking including progress and delivery, just as the UK Government recently concluded an AUKUS review and reaffirmed its support including through the appointment of Sir Stephen Lovegrove as its AUKUS Adviser.
Marles travelled to the US earlier this year to meet his counterpart, Pete Hegseth, and make an $800m downpayment on the submarine project as part of an agreement to help grow the American submarine manufacturing capabilities.
Marles said Thursday the US, the United Kingdom and Australia were all “committed to ensuring AUKUS meets national and trilateral objectives”.
Importantly, AUKUS will grow both US and Australian defence industry as well as generating thousands of new manufacturing jobs. There is bipartisan support in the United States with the passage of important provisions in the National Defence Authorization Act in 2023 to enable the transfer of US Virginia class submarines to Australia, and to enable Australians to work on maintenance activities of US Virginia class submarines.
Our engagement with the Trump Administration and across the full political spectrum in the United States has shown clear and consistent support for AUKUS. We look forward to continuing our close cooperation with the Trump Administration on this historic project.
Beach Boys visionary Brian Wilson dead at 82
Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys musician, songwriter and producer who created some of history’s most purely beautiful pop music, has died aged 82. In a post shared on Instagram on Wednesday, Wilson’s family wrote:
We are heartbroken to announce that our beloved father Brian Wilson has passed away. We are at a loss for words right now. Please respect our privacy at this time as our family is grieving. We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world. Love & Mercy.
You can read the Guardian’s obituary of Wilson here:
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Catie McLeod
Several leading Australian sunscreens don’t provide the protection they say, according to Choice
Some of Australia’s most popular sunscreens including some made by Bondi Sands, Banana Boat and the Cancer Council are falling short of the level of skin protection on the bottle, a Choice investigation has found.
The consumer advocacy group said it tested 20 popular SPF 50 or 50+ sunscreens from a range of retailers and prices in a specialised, accredited laboratory and found 16 of them did not meet their SPF claims.
Ultra Violette’s Lean Screen SPF 50+ returned the worst result of any sunscreen tested by Choice, with the testing showing the product had an SPF of just four. A spokesperson for Ultra Violette said it did not accept Choice’s results as “even remotely accurate” and accused the consumer group of releasing “misleading information” to generate news coverage.
Read more here:
Hockey says ‘at the end of the day’ there is still strong support for Aukus in US
Joe Hockey adds that “at the end of the day, there is still strong support for Aukus” in the US, including in Congress and the White House. But he said Australia needs to leverage what it has at the bargaining table and engage “deeply” with Donald Trump. He told RN Breakfast:
It means we need to be ever vigilant. I keep suggesting to the Australian government in various ways that you can’t ignore the Trump administration. You need to deeply engage with it …
Ultimately, it is really important that the prime minister and the president, when they meet next week, have a detailed discussion about not just Aukus, but the broader trade relationship as well. President Trump is transactional. Look, every politician is transactional. The thing is that Donald Trump is overt about it.
And we have something to trade on: Aukus.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over for the great Martin Farrer. I’ll be your guide through the day’s news.
Joe Hockey says Aukus sceptic leading Pentagon review
Former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey has told the ABC the Pentagon review of Aukus, announced this morning, is being led by an Aukus sceptic.
But there is still strong support for Aukus across the US legislature and in the White House, he said.
“President Trump is transactional,” Hockey said. “And we have something to trade on Aukus.”
He points out that Australia has already made a hefty downpayment to the US to boost submarine production and an Australian company is helping build US submarines.
But Australia has “no options left” if it does not receive Virginia-class submarines from the US under Aukus.
More on the Aukus review:
In today’s Grogonomics column, Greg Jericho delivers an impassioned plea that Labor’s attempts to change superannuation tax concessions should be just the start of a concerted effort to reduce wealth inequality.
Jericho argues that the reason wealthy people have opposed the changes is because they’re worried that the rest of the population will realise that the system is rigged.
Read his full article here, plus graphs of course:
Aged and disability care provider Annecto to close
Daisy Dumas
The aged and disability care provider Annecto will close next month, taking with it the jobs of 1,000 workers and services to more than 3,000 customers.
The company said in a statement yesterday that the July closure would affect all of its support for veterans and elderly and disabled people across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT.
The provider, which had been running for more than 70 years, said the decision to close came after “careful deliberation and extensive stakeholder consultation which considered the service model shifts in the aged care and disability sectors and the financial challenges facing the organisation”.
Annecto said it was working with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, the National Disability Insurance Agency and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to transition its customers and staff to other providers.
The Annecto chair, Colleen Furnaletto, said the “decision was not made lightly”.
“We deeply appreciate the support of our community over all these years and the dedication of our staff and partners to high quality of support standards.”
Potential of AI is immense but it could cost jobs, says productivity chief
Daisy Dumas
Australia’s productivity commissioner says that the opportunities of artificial intelligence are “immense” – but will deliver some job losses.
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 last night, Danielle Wood said the prediction by the chief executive of the US AI company Anthropic that the technology could potentially wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years was “pretty extraordinary” and “out of whack with other reasonable projections” she had seen.
Instead, she said the more routine elements of jobs will be taken over by AI, “freeing people up to do the uniquely human parts of jobs”.
“Am I going to sit here and say, ‘No jobs are going to go?’ No, clearly not. There will be some impacts,” she said, adding that AI will also create jobs that “we can’t even imagine yet”.
“There’s a huge amount of opportunity, and I think we have to remember that … I know so many people that are now using it in their jobs and they can see the way that it is freeing up some of those less good parts of their jobs.”
Josh Butler spoke to Tim Ayres about this very issue, in a story out today, who said there would be “a lot to gain” from embracing AI, particularly highlighting potential boosts to productivity and economic growth.
Ayres, who grew up on a cattle farm near Lismore, said both white-collar and traditional blue-collar jobs could reap benefits from adopting automation and new technology – and that “the cold reality that the only thing more disruptive in the labour market is standing back and allowing Australia to become a cul-de-sac in technological terms”.
Read the full story here:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser to take you through the day.
The new industry and science minister, Tim Ayres, warns today that Australia must “lean in hard” to the benefits of artificial intelligence or else risk ending up “on the end of somebody else’s supply chain”. His comments follow an appearance by Australia’s productivity commissioner on 7.30 last night in which she said AI could cost jobs. More coming up.
We’ll bring you news soon of a big aged care provider which is closing next month.
And parties in Tasmania will be gearing up for another election campaign today after the state’s governor said she had been left with no choice but to call a poll to resolve the Apple Isle’s political crisis. We’ll have the latest.
