Australia politics live: renewables and batteries soar but ‘critical’ moment coming; WiseTech staff face AI redundancy

reported last week that staff were told that they would be informed this week after nearly three months of waiting since the initial announcement.","elementId":"6f958dab-fc02-448b-8c03-83141216c294"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

Guardian Australia understands emails were sent out to affected employees and those who will remain with the company informing them either way, but were recalled and re-sent an hour later.","elementId":"bec790d3-874f-447e-bef6-bdb344141e14"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

Professionals Australia said this was to allow those staff who may be cut to provide their personal email details before being cut off from WiseTech systems.","elementId":"a6214fcc-3d06-414d-a613-029cfa23574d"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

There will be a two-week consultation with WiseTech for those affected, with employees being invited to a meeting to discuss the changes. WiseTech has not yet outlined if it plans to offer more than the required redundancy.","elementId":"eae7b32f-b1cc-44c8-8521-cc987a84e1ad"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

A spokesperson for WiseTech said no final decisions had been made yet.","elementId":"ac3a37fb-e2bb-4903-98b3-85142706ab25"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.BlockquoteBlockElement","html":"\n

No final decisions will be made about any individual roles until the relevant requirements for each local jurisdiction have been met.\n

We recognise that a process of this scale, nature and complexity creates uncertainty for our people. We’ve taken a careful, deliberate approach to ensure our decisions are well informed and made with full regard to our business and our people.\n","elementId":"f3a4cca1-272f-40c9-9fa9-76796d4e3284"}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1779741263000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"22.34 CEST","blockLastUpdated":1779742981000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"23.03 CEST","blockFirstPublished":1779742163000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"22.49 CEST","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"22.49","title":"Almost 200 WiseTech Australian employees flagged for redundancy due to AI","contributors":[{"name":"Josh Taylor","imageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/08/06/Josh_Taylor2.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8f0817a8c42fa3c8151074378eedf09f","largeImageUrl":"https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2019/08/06/Josh_Taylor.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a1e8502bb438342885b78582aeeb8ce9"}],"primaryDateLine":"Mon 25 May 2026 23.03 CEST","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Mon 25 May 2026 22.34 CEST"},{"id":"679b43ab8f08d7cb6f3007fa","elements":[{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.","elementId":"6c1a1b7c-fa64-4ba1-a119-8ea3b236131f"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

There’s good news and bad news for the environment: Australia has become a top-three global player in batteries and renewable energy met nearly half of the nation’s power in 2025 – but the annual industry snapshot warns that new investments are worryingly absent (especially notable given our big exclusive today on BHP’s renewables go-slow).","elementId":"21873e29-6017-4f67-b7f2-b650069d67a9"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

About 190 WiseTech staff have been notified their roles could go as part of 2,000 cuts due to advancements in artificial intelligence, unions have told the Guardian. More coming up.","elementId":"02248ab7-1329-43ee-aeba-3067b9c8ae83"},{"_type":"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement","html":"

The men’s health project Movember is pushing for more support for new fathers and will lobby parliament today. More coming up on that, too.","elementId":"e68f0aa8-21ad-4af7-a26e-1c414945710a"}],"attributes":{"pinned":false,"keyEvent":true,"summary":false},"blockCreatedOn":1779741263000,"blockCreatedOnDisplay":"22.34 CEST","blockLastUpdated":1779741102000,"blockLastUpdatedDisplay":"22.31 CEST","blockFirstPublished":1779741263000,"blockFirstPublishedDisplay":"22.34 CEST","blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone":"22.34","title":"Welcome","contributors":[],"primaryDateLine":"Mon 25 May 2026 23.03 CEST","secondaryDateLine":"First published on Mon 25 May 2026 22.34 CEST"}],"filterKeyEvents":false,"id":"key-events-carousel-mobile","renderingTarget":"Web","serverTime":1779742993952}">

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Almost 200 WiseTech Australian employees flagged for redundancy due to AI

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Josh Taylor

WiseTech’s founder and chair, Richard White wrote to staff late on Sunday evening to allege there had been “personal attacks, vitriol, and deeply offensive behaviour in group chats” regarding the restructure of the software company due to AI.

The company did not provide any examples of this when asked on Monday.

Multiple staff Guardian Australia spoke to suggest all questions to the executives in the chat have been seeking more information on the redundancies in a professional manner, and argue they’re being attacked for asking questions.

White’s email also alleges the chief executive, Zubin Appoo, received a handwritten note “threat of violence... containing personal information and offensive comments directed at members of his family”.

A spokesperson for WiseTech said the matter “is under police investigation” and said:

WiseTech has zero tolerance for threats of violence, abuse, intimidation, harassment, vitriol or offensive behavior against anyone.Almost 200 WiseTech Australian employees flagged for redundancy due to AI

Josh Taylor

Professionals Australia, the union representing workers at software company WiseTech has told Guardian Australia about 190 staff on the company’s product development and customer service teams have been notified their roles could go as part of the 2,000 cut due to advancements in artificial intelligence.

Guardian Australia reported last week that staff were told that they would be informed this week after nearly three months of waiting since the initial announcement.

Guardian Australia understands emails were sent out to affected employees and those who will remain with the company informing them either way, but were recalled and re-sent an hour later.

Professionals Australia said this was to allow those staff who may be cut to provide their personal email details before being cut off from WiseTech systems.

There will be a two-week consultation with WiseTech for those affected, with employees being invited to a meeting to discuss the changes. WiseTech has not yet outlined if it plans to offer more than the required redundancy.

A spokesperson for WiseTech said no final decisions had been made yet.

double quotation mark

No final decisions will be made about any individual roles until the relevant requirements for each local jurisdiction have been met.

We recognise that a process of this scale, nature and complexity creates uncertainty for our people. We’ve taken a careful, deliberate approach to ensure our decisions are well informed and made with full regard to our business and our people.

Australia has become a top-three global player in batteries, and renewable energy met nearly half of the nation’s power in 2025, but the Clean Energy Council has warned that progress could stall as investment in new wind and solar plummeted.

The industry’s annual snapshot found renewable energy supplied 43% of Australia’s power throughout 2025, up from 39% in 2024. The year ended on a high, with clean energy generating more than 50% of power in the national grid in the final quarter.

Australia ranked third in the world for utility-scale batteries, behind only China and the United States – with 2GW of large-scale battery capacity connected to the grid, up 233% on the previous year.

Yet despite these achievements, CEC chief executive Jackie Trad said the energy transition was approaching a “critical juncture”.

double quotation mark

The next five years matter most. Our sector’s highest priority in 2026 must be to remove the barriers slowing investment in new large-scale wind and solar projects that will ultimately replace unreliable coal generators that threaten the security of our energy system.

A 48% fall in new investment in onshore wind and solar signalled a likely slowdown. This was most evident for wind, with 0.9GW reaching financial close in 2025, compared to 2.2GW the previous year.

According to the report, rising inflation, regulatory bottlenecks, slow delivery of transmission and delayed coal closures contributed to weakening investor confidence.

Investment in battery storage remained strong. The uptake of home batteries surged 260%, compared to 2024, helped by the federal government’s cheaper home batteries program. More than 268,000 small-scale storage systems were added during 2025 - a number that has since grown to 400,000.Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.

There’s good news and bad news for the environment: Australia has become a top-three global player in batteries and renewable energy met nearly half of the nation’s power in 2025 – but the annual industry snapshot warns that new investments are worryingly absent (especially notable given our big exclusive today on BHP’s renewables go-slow).

About 190 WiseTech staff have been notified their roles could go as part of 2,000 cuts due to advancements in artificial intelligence, unions have told the Guardian. More coming up.

The men’s health project Movember is pushing for more support for new fathers and will lobby parliament today. More coming up on that, too.