Ed Husic says weakening copyright to benefit AI companies would betray Labor party’s ethos

CANBERRA — Labor MP Ed Husic has sharply criticized any moves to water down copyright law to benefit AI companies, arguing it would betray the party’s founding ethos of “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” His comments come as the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) calls on the government to enact stronger copyright rules to prevent creative works being used to train AI models without consent or payment.

Husic urged his colleagues to impose stricter rules on big tech firms rather than relying on self‑regulation, which he described as “doomed to failure.” Reflecting on decades of industry self‑regulation, he told Sky News on Tuesday that governments sometimes need to step in, just as they did on emissions reduction.

“We’ve tried this. Going down the path of social licence with tech is a path that’s sadly doomed to failure,” Husic said.

The debate follows industry proposals to grant AI companies special copyright exemptions in exchange for increased investment in Australian datacentres. Documents released under freedom of information laws show Treasury officials warned Treasurer Jim Chalmers that Anthropic had complained copyright rules were impeding datacentre development, ahead of a meeting with its CEO Dario Amodei.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to deliver a major speech on AI in Sydney on Wednesday, addressing concerns around social licence, policy guardrails for AI, datacentres, and Australian intellectual property. However, he is not expected to detail progress on long‑awaited copyright reforms to protect creative industries.

Husic, a former industry minister, argued that allowing AI firms to use creative works without compensation undermines the principle of fair remuneration. “Their executives get paid for their work, and if they’re expecting others to hand over their work without being paid, that is just a no‑go zone and should be resisted,” he said.

The MEAA echoed Husic’s stance, calling for long‑term solutions to protect creative workers from exploitation. It urged the government to guarantee equitable remuneration and explicitly bar AI firms from training models on creative works without consent and payment to original creators.

Sources

• Ed Husic says weakening copyright to benefit AI companies would betray Labor party’s ethos