Live: David Pocock demands Labor ensures 'fair return' from AI data centres

live Federal politics live: David Pocock demands Labor ensures 'fair return' from AI data centres Independent senator David Pocock says the government needs to ensure a "fair return" for investment in artificial intelligence data centres. Follow all the updates in our live blog. Submit a comment or question Live updates Tue 9 Jun 2026 at 7:23am Thistlethwaite says Coalition, One Nation are defending status quo on taxes Matt Thistlethwaite says the Coalition and One Nation are defending the status quo by rallying against the government's budget measures. Asked about the latest Newspoll showing One Nation ahead of Labor and the Coalition on primary votes, the assistant foreign minister says the government acknowledges the cost of living pressures. Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, Thistlethwaite says the government's budget measures are aimed at "rebalancing" the tax system in favour of workers. "All of our changes in the budget around capital gains tax, negative gearing, fairer taxes for trusts are all aimed at ensuring that we rebalance that system back in favour of working Australians," Thistlethwaite says. "The ironic thing is that it's actually One Nation and the Coalition that are acting to defend the current system. They want to keep the current system in place." Tue 9 Jun 2026 at 7:13am David Pocock calls for 'fair return' in AI data centre development Independent senator David Pocock has called on the government to set clearer guidelines about data centre development and ensure they are taxed accordingly. In an opinion piece in The Guardian this morning, Pocock says governments from both sides have spent decades getting the settings "wrong" and putting "vested interests ahead of the national interest". The ACT senator says Australia "can't afford" to repeat its experience with the tax settings around gas exports and that people deserve a "fair return". "If multinational tech companies are going to use Australian land, Australian energy, Australian water and Australian workers to build the infrastructure that powers the AI revolution, then Australians deserve a fair return," Pocock says. "That's the lesson we failed to learn with gas. We shouldn't wait another generation to learn it again." Tue 9 Jun 2026 at 7:04am Good morning 👋 Hello and welcome to today's federal politics live blog! It's great to have you join us here early this Tuesday morning. I'm Josh Boscaini joining you live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news. An independent senator has called on the government to set firm guidelines around the development of artificial intelligence data centres. David Pocock says Australia can't afford to repeat the "mistake" around the tax settings on gas exports, and has called for a "fair return" from companies who set up data centres in Australia. Let's get into the day and see what else we get!