helenfielder

Australia should use its data centres, uranium, energy resources and strategic infrastructure to ease the burden on households, not simply ask middle Australians to pay more. Labor’s latest Budget confirms the problem facing middle Australia. The people who work, save, pay tax, run businesses and carry mortgages are again being asked to fund an expanding national project, while the relief offered to them is modest, delayed and conditional. The Government has announced a $250 Working...

Abstract Australia’s commitment to the AUKUS partnership represents one of the most significant defence and industrial policy decisions in its modern history. While framed as a necessary response to evolving strategic conditions in the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS embeds Australia in a multi-decade program centred on nuclear-powered submarines and advanced defence technologies. This article argues that the legal, regulatory and industrial complexity of AUKUS risks locking Australia into a capability...

Australia is fast becoming a serious destination for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Billions of dollars are being directed toward data centres, compute clusters and energy-intensive AI systems. Proposals such as the reported $7 billion OpenAI–NEXTDC campus in Western Sydney highlight the scale of investment now in play. At first glance, this looks like a clear economic win. But a more important question sits beneath it: who is actually capturing the value? If you examine how AI...