Gina Rinehart is an honorary life member of the IPA and'a generous contributor to many causes,' IPA executive director, Scott Hargreaves, says. Gina Rinehart is an honorary life member of the IPA and'a generous contributor to many causes,' IPA executive director, Scott Hargreaves, says. Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart has previously donated to Institute of Public Affairs but thinktank won't say if she remains a donor A thinktank known for its rejection of the climate crisis and a conservation group that has opposed renewable energy projects refused to identify their funders during a fiery Senate inquiry into climate and energy misinformation on Wednesday. Chair of the committee, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, asked Rainforest Reserves Australia's vice-president, Steven Nowakowski, who had funded nine full-page newspaper advertisements promoting an open letter attacking a shift to renewable energy and promoting nuclear. Nowakowski said they were paid for by donations, some coming from the signatories of the letter, but would not name them.

AI risks entrenching racism and sexism in Australia, the human rights commissioner has warned, amid internal Labor debate about how to respond to the emerging technology. Lorraine Finlay says the pursuit of productivity gains from AI should not come at the expense of discrimination if the technology is not properly regulated. Finlay's comments follow Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah breaking ranks to call for all Australian data to be "freed" to tech companies to prevent AI perpetuating overseas biases and reflect Australian life and culture. Ananda-Rajah is opposed to a dedicated AI act but believes content creators should be paid for their work. Media and arts groups have warned of "rampant theft" of intellectual property if big tech companies can take their content to train AI models.