Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar urges Australia to embrace AI as firm strips 150 jobs

One of Australia’s first tech billionaires has called for the nation to become the data centre capital of the Asia-Pacific in the global artificial intelligence race, just hours after the software firm he helped found sacked 150 employees to replace a majority with AI.

Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar said individuals, companies and countries needed to embrace AI or risk falling behind, linking the technology as key to lifting lagging productivity.

He envisaged Australia hosting “digital embassies” where foreign nations could store their sensitive government data on our soil — but under their own foreign laws.

“Why host your foreign data in any other country when you could host it in Australia with cheaper power, faster build times under the laws of your own country,” he suggested, in a speech to the National Press Club.

“We could be the provider of choice for every government in the region and for every business that needs a Southeast Asian data centre.”

Mr Farquhar’s tech push on Wednesday came after Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon Brookes sacked employees, after making artificial intelligence “improvements” to operations.

When asked about the sackings Mr Farquhar —who stepped down as joint-chief executive of Atlassian in September but remains on the board — said job changes as a result of increased AI uptake across the sector was natural and shake ups at Atlassian occurred on a “regular basis”.

Mr Cannon-Brookes told the discarded workers in a video message rather than face-to-face just hours before attending the address to support Mr Farquhar.

During his address Mr Farquhar, who is chair of the Tech Council, said Australia has significant advantages for AI development — including abundant land and energy potential, a strong legal system and strategic location.

However, he brushed aside security concerns over Australia collaborating with China on AI, saying he wasn’t a national security expert and that the issue was more complex.

“I’m not an expert on national security. I do believe that those things are very nuanced conversations. I think it’s clear that our highest security partner is the United States, and our largest trading partner is China,” Mr Farquhar said

He said the Australian government and tech firms should collaborate in embracing AI technologies, to progress the speed of technology rather than bureaucracy.

Adding that if Australian businesses “simply adopted existing AI tools, we’d see a major productivity lift”.

“Research, by the Tech Council that I’m chair of, shows this could add up to $115 billion a year, in addition to our economy by 2030,” he said.

He called on unions to help support workers who lose their jobs through AI take up, by supporting new six to four month “tech trade digital apprenticeships”.

He described them as short, practical qualifications to get people ready for high demand industries like data centre construction and battery installation, adding they could be stepping stone modulus to full trades.

Mr Farquhar also flagged copyright law reform as a key area for the Government to tackle.

“We need to make changes to our copyright laws. Australia’s copyright laws are out of sync with the rest of the world,” he said.

“While the USA and Europe have exemptions for fair use, for text and data mining, and the Australian Law Commission in 2014 recommended changes, and Australian Productivity Commission in 2016 recommended changes.

“We remain an outlier when it comes to copyright.

He called on the Attorney General Michelle Rowland to “urgently amend’ the Copyright Act to “look at fair use and text and data mining exceptions”.

He said changing the Act could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment in Australia.

“This is a barrier to AI companies who want to train or host their models in Australia, and this is even a barrier to Australian born companies who want to build our models here.”

In April last year, Mr Farquhar had announced his resignation as joint chief executive of Atlassian before officially stepping down in September 2024.

In a statement issued after the address, the firm claimed the roles were not being directly replaced by AI l — saying the cuts were prompted by “improvements” to their customer support.

“These improvements include reducing the time spent on support tickets with more efficient ways to route work to the right experts. Customers are also able to self-service through the embedding of AI in our contact form but it’s primarily because our customers need less help with the product,” a spokesperson stated.