The commercial future of AI will soon be bigger than the actions of any firm, individual, research team, or open-source community. In the near term, a massive tailwind of potential use cases and nearly completed projects will determine the rate of progress in creating value for users and suppliers. Still, the source of the next frontier commercial breakthrough and the distribution of profits look undetermined and, for reasons to be explained, underdetermined.
Large language models (LLMs) have overrun commercial markets, more like a tsunami than a normal technical wave of interest. The topic is everywhere –news stories, blogs, podcasts, startup investments, analyst reports, hackathons, and government announcements. A virtual frenzy surrounds it.
Scott Morrison, the former Prime Minister (2018-22), has delivered his valedictory speech to the House of Representatives.
Morrison will resign as the Liberal member for Cook later this week.
First elected to parliament in 2007, Morrison was re-elected five more times. He served nearly six years in opposition before becoming a Cabinet minister upon election of the Abbott coalition government in 2013. Becoming prime minister on August 24, 2018, Morrison won the 2019 election, but was defeated at the election of May 21, 2022.
The Defence Minister, Richard Marles, has announced an upgrade and expansion of the Australian Navy to give it an “enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet”.
Flanked by the Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry, Marles announced an additional $11 billion over the next decade. The money will be used to expand the Navy’s fleet of warships to 26 vessels, an increase of 15 craft.
Commitments to the construction of naval vessels in South Australia and Western Australia were reiterated, with ship workers being promised work for deacdes.
Jeremy Rockliff, the Liberal Premier of Tasmania, has announced that negotiations with two former Liberal MPs have broken down and he will call an early election tomorrow.
Rockliff said John Tucker and Lara Alexander had “failed to commit to a new, enduring agreement”, following their resignations from the Liberal Party in May, 2023. The former Liberals had concerns relating to the proposed Macquarie Point Stadium project. Their resignations sent the government into minority status in the House of Assembly.
The Reserve Bank of Australia today made no change to the cash rate, leaving it at 4.35%.
The 4.35% rate has been in force since November 2023.
The bank’s decision is its first in a restructured process. As part of the new processes, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, held a press conference an hour after the bank’s decision was announced.
Watch Michele Bullock’s press conference (45m)
The coalition will support the Albanese government’s tax cuts, the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, confirmed today.
Flanked by the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, and the Shadow Finance Minister, Senator Jane Hume, Dutton said “the coalition is not going to stand in the way of people who are doing it tough”.
With repeated references to “the liar in The Lodge” and the government’s “egregious lie”, Dutton said the coalition would take “a significant tax policy” to the next election.
Watch the Dutton-Taylor-Hume press conference (35m)
The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.
Yang Hengjun
Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.
Greg Combet, a former minister in the Rudd-Gillard governments, has been appointed Chairman of the Future Fund.
Greg Combet, new Chairman of the Future Fund
The Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, made the announcement at a press conference today.
This is the video of Governor-General David Hurley’s 2024 Australia Day Address.
The Address was shown on ABC television at 6.55pm on Australia Day.
Australia Day 1973 passed almost unnoticed, according to one radio news report, but Gough Whitlam used his 53rd day as prime minister to announce a search for a new national anthem.
Listen to a news report from radio 3DB in Melbourne on January 26, 1973, including a clip from Whitlam’s speech (1m)
Whitlam’s announcement of a replacement for God Save the Queen came in his Australia Day address. He said:
The Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, has responded to the Prime Minister’s Press Club appearance today.
The rhetoric could charitably be described as over-the-top:
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has defended the changes the government has made to the Stage 3 tax cuts.
In an address to the National Press Club, Albanese confirmed that the tax system will remain progressive with the reintroduction of the 37% tax scale. Whereas the Stage 3 cuts excluded people on lower incomes, all taxpayers will now receive a tax cut from July 1, but those on higher incomes have had their cut reduced.
The former prime minister, Scott Morrison, has announced that he will retire from parliament at the end of February.
Morrison made the announcement in a statement posted on Facebook. He said he would “take on new challenges in the global corporate sector and spend more time with my family.”