The fight over AI copyright in Australia has landed in the prime minister's own backyard. Creatives in Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler are pushing back against a federal proposal that would allow AI companies to scrape what Australians create online unless rights holders object, with the government's draft laws due by the end of the year and consideration in parliament scheduled for 2027.

Why Grayndler is the centre of resistance

The inner Sydney electorate is home to more than 3,000 cultural and creative businesses, and one in ten of its workers is employed in cultural and creative fields - more than double the national figure of 4.2 percent.

Albanese has held the seat on a safe margin for three decades, and at recent elections has won it on first preferences alone. No sitting member has lost a seat from such a margin at a federal election.

That makes his electorate a politically pointed place for artists to voice their objections.

The opt-out model on the table

Labor is weighing copyright changes as part of a suite of AI-related reforms spanning datacentres, energy and the economy, while seeking compromise with US technology companies.

• •Anthropic proposed an opt-out model under which it could scrape content unless a rightholder objected.
• •Coalition senators and the recording industry warned such a model could amount to an acquisition of property by the government.
• •Some AI companies argue licensing agreements under existing copyright law would be too difficult.

Labor's proposals were leaked in September as senior OpenAI personnel met Labor ministers and warned that Australia's copyright laws were preventing the company from training models locally.

Albanese has promised "the strongest possible protection" and warned it would be "theft" if creatives were not paid for their work.

Artists speak out

Pete Strong, a screenprinter whose business is in Grayndler and a Greens councillor for Bayside, said AI could be "good for humanity" but had become an "extraction industry mining for profit for the few". "I'm completely against [the federal government's proposal]," he said. "It's hard enough being a starving artist these days without having all your work taken and used in these nefarious ways."

This year Strong curated a show called "overthrow the algorithm" and has criticised a proposed datacentre at Cooks Cove. "I've seen a backlash [to the government] already... It started with the datacentre uprising," he said.

Designer Lu Campbell-Smith said being required to opt out was "outrageous" and that Australia was being treated as a test market. "Why would anyone want to make anything and post anything online if … you're creating free content for an AI machine?" she asked.

H Morgan-Harris, director of Tortuga Studios and the aerie in St Peters, warned the Australian creative ecosystem could be "decimated" and said her copywriting industry had already been heavily impacted by AI.

"I just feel like artists are the first to be thrown under the bus," Morgan-Harris said, adding: "This honestly feels like the end of times to a lot of us."

Jason Zoidberg, co-founder of Monster Mouse Studios in Marrickville, said the AI industry had already stolen artists' "collective labour" without consequence. In his view, the companies' overtures to investors sit awkwardly with their conduct towards creators: he described the situation as baffling, given everything he says he has watched them do.

Zoidberg noted a surge of interest in hands-on art forms, with his workshops drawing more participants - though he described it as "a little inner west bubble".

Political stakes for Albanese

At the next federal election Albanese will be challenged by 28-year-old Hannah Ferguson, co-founder of Cheek Media, running as an independent.

Nationally, Guardian Australia's latest Essential poll puts the prime minister's disapproval rating at 56 percent, the equal highest since he took office.

The government's draft laws are expected by the end of the year, with parliamentary consideration due in 2027.