South Australian Liberal Andrew McLachlan Rejects Trading Copyright for AI Investment

"The works [artists] create must not be sacrificed on the altar of global corporate profiteering," McLachlan said. "Artists' property rights must be respected and protected."

His comments come as Labor weighs copyright changes within a wider AI policy suite that also covers data centres, online safety, energy resources and economic benefits. The package is expected before the end of the year. AI companies have said they need legal certainty on copyright before investing in Australia, and some have refused to strike agreements under existing law, arguing it is too difficult. Anthropic has proposed an opt-out model that would let it scrape music, books and journalism unless a rights holder objects. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously said it would be "theft" if creatives were not paid for their work.

McLachlan added weight to possible constitutional challenges to any dilution of copyright law. Aria has argued that giving AI companies permission to scrape copyrighted material from the internet could amount to the government acquiring property, which the constitution requires be done "on just terms". Fellow Coalition members Ross Cadell and Michaelia Cash have backed that concern.

McLachlan said any compensation would have to be considered for each artist individually, and that an industry-wide scheme would be hard to make fair. "As a Liberal, I believe property rights are foundational to a healthy democracy and a strong economy," he said. "The state should never seek to compulsorily acquire or trade away an individual's property rights except in very limited circumstances and not without just compensation."

His stance cuts against a largely bipartisan approach. Labor and the Coalition have mostly agreed on AI, and senator David Pocock has complained of a major party "stitch-up" on regulation. This week shadow home affairs minister Jonno Duniam and shadow cybersecurity minister Aaron Violi said AI was "too important to become an unnecessarily partisan political contest". Both major parties want more AI investment and data centres in Australia, though the opposition has warned the government against "selling out" Australian rights holders to secure it.

McLachlan, who has spoken strongly on conservation, also took aim at the growth of data centres, which is expected to raise emissions and household power costs and has drawn a backlash from environmental groups and some communities. "Datacentres must not be built at the expense of our biodiversity," he said, adding that Australia must explore ways to build sovereign AI capability sustainably. "I choose real forests over virtual ones."

He said AI offered "amazing opportunities" for the country, but that the costs of any trade-offs must be clearly articulated and understood.

Earlier this week Labor announced it would set up a new AI safety regulator and impose six key obligations on AI companies after a breach of government sites by OpenAI.