Midnight Oil frontman joins national pushback against Big Tech’s bid to mine Australian culture without paying for it.
Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett isn’t mincing words — proposals to water down copyright law so AI companies can freely scrape music, books, and art would make “roadkill” out of songwriters, authors, and playwrights.
Speaking at a creative industries town hall on Tuesday, Garrett called Big Tech’s push to mine creative works without paying for them a “moment of reckoning” for Australia.
The Stolen Property: Big Tech’s Push to Mine Our Culture virtual protest aims to rally a national campaign against the Productivity Commission’s interim report, which floated a “fair dealing” exception that would let AI train on our songs and stories without compensation.
“The threat here is literally to our cultural, political, social and economic sovereignty… And if we don’t take it up to our politicians, then we’ll be left as roadkill on the side of the road,” Garrett warned. “It won’t just be musicians lying there, wounded and bleeding. It’ll be all of us.”
Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea added that the danger extends beyond artists — Australians’ personal data is also in the firing line if privacy laws are eroded. She cited researchers who hacked an AI chatbot used by McDonald’s job applicants, exposing thousands of people’s private details.
Garrett’s message is clear: Australia needs ironclad guardrails to protect its culture and storytellers from the “thievery” of tech giants who take billions out of the country. His advice? Lobby your local MP before we all end up on the roadside.
