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Is a four-day work week in our future? · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, August fifteen, twenty twenty five. Anthony Albanezi believes
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  Speaker 1: Australia can help broke a piece in Gaza under a
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  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabian lead proposal that could see Arab nations send
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  Speaker 1: in peacekeepers. Tributes a flowing for the beloved film critic
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  Speaker 1: David Stratton, who's died at the age of eighty five.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote reviews for The Australian for more than three decades,
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  Speaker 1: and you can read all about his life and legacy
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  Speaker 1: right now at The Australian dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Dot you.
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  Speaker 1: A four day workweek, caps on your superbalance, attacks on
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  Speaker 1: electric vehicles. These are some of the ideas being floated
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  Speaker 1: for discussion at a big shindick in Canberra next week,
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  Speaker 1: an economic roundtable that the Treasurer says will help shape
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  Speaker 1: his next three budgets. Today, Political editor Jeff Chambers joins
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  Speaker 1: me to work out what's credible and what's crazy. Jeff
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  Speaker 1: Chambers is The Australian's political editor and like most people
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  Speaker 1: with big jobs, I think Jeff works about seven days
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  Speaker 1: a week. Would that be right?
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  Speaker 3: Jeff, I try not to, but I think for most
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  Speaker 3: Australians they're not sitting there watching the clock. They're trying
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  Speaker 3: to do the best at their job. And there's no
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  Speaker 3: real right to disconnect, as some of the unions like
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  Speaker 3: to suggest that there is.
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  Speaker 1: Well, the latest idea from the union movement is a
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  Speaker 1: four day working week, but the twister is you'd be
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  Speaker 1: paid for five days. Jeff, why are they talking about
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  Speaker 1: this now?
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  Speaker 3: Look, the ACTU has predictably rolled out a shopping list
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  Speaker 3: of completely unworkable ideas and they quite often know that
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  Speaker 3: they are so radical that they will never actually get up.
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  Speaker 3: And at the top of that list is this idea
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  Speaker 3: of four day working week, but you get paid full
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  Speaker 3: time for the full five days, So it's like, let's
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  Speaker 3: all work less and take more holidays, which is another
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  Speaker 3: one of their proposals that they're floated to increase productivity.
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  Speaker 3: Not quite sure how that works. And this type of
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  Speaker 3: spooky music radicalism from the ACTU really puts the fright
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  Speaker 3: into the private sector business industry leaders who attend these forums.
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  Speaker 3: So the unions have already won the right to disconnect,
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  Speaker 3: which was a very symbolic thing that labor did for them.
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  Speaker 3: But if you're a small business owner, you never really
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  Speaker 3: can disconnect just to keep food on the table and
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  Speaker 3: pay the bills. And for that fact, the very staffers
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  Speaker 3: and journalists here in Parliament, but the staffers at work
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  Speaker 3: for these labor ministers, they often chuckle to me that
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  Speaker 3: there is no right to disconnect for them. So it's
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  Speaker 3: all a bit of a show.
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  Speaker 1: But that's not all, folks. Sally McManus, the boss of
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  Speaker 1: the Australian Council of Try Unions the ACTU, is also
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  Speaker 1: calling for twenty five billion dollars in new or higher taxes,
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  Speaker 1: a limit of one property for negative gearing, changes to
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  Speaker 1: capital gains tax and more. McMahon says this is about
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  Speaker 1: making life fairer, particularly for young people who can't get
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  Speaker 1: into the housing market.
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  Speaker 2: Working people can't live where they work, they can't live
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  Speaker 2: where they grew up. It is causing an enormous amount
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  Speaker 2: of pressure for people. And a really disturbing thing is
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  Speaker 2: is that of study in New South Wales said that
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  Speaker 2: there will be no grandchildren in Sydney because people between
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  Speaker 2: the ages of thirty and forty can't afford to live there.
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  Speaker 1: So why are we suddenly hearing all these new ideas
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  Speaker 1: because on Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is kicking off something
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  Speaker 1: called the Economic Reform round Table, a summit of business,
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  Speaker 1: unions and decision makers aimed at working out how to
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  Speaker 1: position Australia for the future. One of the hot issues
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  Speaker 1: on the table is artificial intelligence. Obviously we're on the
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  Speaker 1: cusp of a huge change technologically, a big leap forward.
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  Speaker 1: They're talking about vices that the new Industrial Revolution where
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  Speaker 1: suddenly all of us are going to have very eager
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  Speaker 1: virtual assistants who are helping us do our jobs. Businesses
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  Speaker 1: and the government and the Productivity Commission. Also they want
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  Speaker 1: Australians to adopt generative AI to start using it. Do
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  Speaker 1: you think that is how we're actually going to make
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  Speaker 1: the economy more productive?
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  Speaker 2: Now?
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  Speaker 3: I think that sort of blanket conversation about everyday workers
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  Speaker 3: and businesses using generative AI is probably not that helpful.
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  Speaker 3: I think talking about the more targeted applications of AI
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  Speaker 3: and what that could practically do to allow all of
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  Speaker 3: us to be more productive in our lives, our day
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  Speaker 3: to day, both at home and at work, is a
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  Speaker 3: more practical way forward. And what does that mean? Well,
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  Speaker 3: you really have to actually educate people. And the big
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  Speaker 3: boardrooms are the big companies. They've got a whole army
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  Speaker 3: of people that are dedicated to understanding it and how
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  Speaker 3: to apply it. But then as you get down to
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  Speaker 3: those smaller businesses, of which we obviously know there's multimillion
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  Speaker 3: small businesses, the art of this whole process is to
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  Speaker 3: not leave them behind.
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  Speaker 1: Here's another part of the puzzle. The companies creating great
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  Speaker 1: AI tools include Google and Meta, whom the government is
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  Speaker 1: presently warring with over social media bands for kids. So
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  Speaker 1: how to police them without leaving Australia behind on the
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  Speaker 1: AI revolution.
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  Speaker 3: These companies are based in America predominantly, but they're in Europe,
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  Speaker 3: they're in China. We really are watching what Europe and
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  Speaker 3: a US are doing in that regulatory space and they
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  Speaker 3: can't really land it. We really need some of our
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  Speaker 3: big allies and friends in the West to put some
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  Speaker 3: systems in place that we can follow. But then we also,
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  Speaker 3: as little old Australia here, the island nation with a
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  Speaker 3: much smaller population and smaller economy, we can't be left
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  Speaker 3: behind in the AI revolution. So it's a really challenging space.
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  Speaker 3: And what makes it even more challenging is the speed
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  Speaker 3: of those technological advances.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I had an example of it this morning. There's a
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  Speaker 1: book that I've got to read for work because it's
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  Speaker 1: a project that we're working on, and it's a big book.
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  Speaker 1: It's one hundred and fifty thousand words. I haven't managed
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  Speaker 1: to get around to it yet. But one of the
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  Speaker 1: AI tools that we're allowed to use here in NewsCorp
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  Speaker 1: is called Notebook Large Language Model, and you can dump
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  Speaker 1: something into it and then tell it to spit out
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  Speaker 1: a podcast episode for you. You know, this is scary
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  Speaker 1: for people like me who work in podcasts, but this
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  Speaker 1: is not something we'd ever published. So this morning I
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  Speaker 1: uploaded the book into the AI and I told it
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  Speaker 1: to make a little podcast episode for me and tell
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  Speaker 1: me what's happening in this book? What's it all about?
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the dip Dave today we're unpacking well and
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  Speaker 1: it generated ten minutes of audio with two AI voices
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  Speaker 1: talking about the book and telling me all the main
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  Speaker 1: points and what I needed to know and why was
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  Speaker 1: that significant?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 1: They were cheaper, sure, but critically their visas were tied
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  Speaker 1: to their contracts that made them rich. And I could
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  Speaker 1: listen to that while I was driving into the office.
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  Speaker 1: That's a productivity advance, isn't it. Like that's how we
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  Speaker 1: actually harness this technology.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean in a really simple sense. Yeah, you
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  Speaker 3: can digest a very complex long report or video or
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  Speaker 3: audio recording, and the technology is actually getting a lot better,
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  Speaker 3: even in the space of the last two years. So
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  Speaker 3: as a journalist, if I'm interviewing someone and the old
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  Speaker 3: fashioned way was to listen back to the tape and
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  Speaker 3: tap out the words, the technology is actually really improving
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  Speaker 3: that it's almost word perfect. But then you can also
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  Speaker 3: get a summary, and the summaries are quite good. So
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  Speaker 3: that will make you more productive in a really simple
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  Speaker 3: way day to day. Now, when you think about students
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  Speaker 3: at school, primary school, high school, university, and when you're
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  Speaker 3: thinking about the different professions and how that applies, I
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  Speaker 3: think that's the important part of the story. Okay, what
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  Speaker 3: jobs become redundant through this process and how do we
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  Speaker 3: adapt to that. Are we happy for a call center
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  Speaker 3: to not be based overseas but to have a really
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  Speaker 3: amazing AI set up call center that we feel confident
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  Speaker 3: in And I think confidence in that service and delivery
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  Speaker 3: is key to getting more and more Australians to adopt
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  Speaker 3: these types of technologies.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that the union movement said when
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  Speaker 1: they asked for this four day week or put it
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  Speaker 1: on their shopping list, was that they wanted to be
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  Speaker 1: able to reap the benefits of productivity. So this is
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  Speaker 1: how workers can enjoy an extra day off a week
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  Speaker 1: while AI goes and does some of the tasks that
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  Speaker 1: they don't need to do anymore. A really interesting political
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  Speaker 1: issue for Jim Chalmers to manage now, isn't it. He
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  Speaker 1: needs the unions to be on board with the adoption
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  Speaker 1: of AI, presumably, but if their idea is great, we
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  Speaker 1: can all take a day off. Is that useful for him?
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  Speaker 3: We're in such an uncertain space in terms of understanding
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  Speaker 3: what an economy wide effect AI has. I think if
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  Speaker 3: you're a government or a treasurer and you want to
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  Speaker 3: speed up your clean energy revolution to hit your climate
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  Speaker 3: of renewables targets, if you want to unlock more housing quicker,
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  Speaker 3: if you want to simplify environmental processes and laws, simplify bureaucracies,
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  Speaker 3: I think that for him is a really big top priority.
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  Speaker 3: Is Okay, we've got this ridiculously antiquated system where we
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  Speaker 3: can't get approvals through quick enough. I think there are
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  Speaker 3: some genuine divisions in the government in relation to a
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  Speaker 3: regulatory environment, whether you let it rip, whether some of
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  Speaker 3: those checks have to be in place. It's really challenging
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  Speaker 3: to actually impose regulations, expect results from those regulations and
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  Speaker 3: penalties without holding the country back. So it's a very
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  Speaker 3: tricky situation for Jim Chalmers.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. What about taxes on electric vehicles. Back when
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  Speaker 1: this idea was launched, Anthony Albanezi called it a Productivity
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  Speaker 1: round Table. Then Jim Charmers changed it to the much
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  Speaker 1: more lofty sounding Economic Reform round Table, and that's what's
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  Speaker 1: prompted this flurry of ideas from the unions, the Productivity Commission, businesses.
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  Speaker 1: Now the government's saying this will just be an ideas forum.
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  Speaker 1: They're not committing to anything. One possible outcome is a
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  Speaker 1: road user charge, basically a tax on electric vehicles. The
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  Speaker 1: states and territories want this to replace the fuel excise
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  Speaker 1: the drivers of petrol cars pay. That's a huge source
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  Speaker 1: of revenue that's dwindling as evs become more popular.
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  Speaker 3: Particularly if you're in the outer suburbs or in regional Australia.
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  Speaker 3: We need roads and transport networks that are super efficient
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  Speaker 3: so that people aren't sitting in redlock and can get
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  Speaker 3: to work, get home and see their families all the
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  Speaker 3: rest of it. But without a sustainable system we won't
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  Speaker 3: be able to have that money to do that. So
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  Speaker 3: there is a lot of momentum now and Jim Chalmers
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  Speaker 3: and Anthony Abanezi have more or less said it's happening,
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  Speaker 3: and I think in the first instance they might start
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  Speaker 3: trialing it on say EV trucks, just to try and
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  Speaker 3: get the technology right before a broader rollout.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't there a risk though, Jeff that this off kill
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  Speaker 1: to one of the government's other goals, which is to
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  Speaker 1: increase the uptake of EV's, basically make the planet less polluted.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the EV Council and advocates for EVS say
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  Speaker 3: that any contemplation of a road user charge shouldn't occur
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  Speaker 3: until thirty percent of new car sales evs. The flip
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  Speaker 3: side is that there are now settings in place that
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  Speaker 3: are incentivizing automatically that pushed towards evs, you know, exemptions
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  Speaker 3: on fringe benefit tax, exemptions on vehicle stamp duty, free regio.
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  Speaker 3: There is another model you could do as well, which
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  Speaker 3: would be have fuel excise still in place and have
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  Speaker 3: a road user charge system. And if they design in
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: a way where the road user charge system is less
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  Speaker 3: ultimately across the year than a fuel car, again that's
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  Speaker 3: another incentive for people to buy evs or hybrids.
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is the Australian Political Editor. We'll be all
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: over this roundtable and all the ideas.
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  Speaker 2: That throws up.
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  Speaker 1: You can follow it live and read all our analysis
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au