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

Australia now the world’s third-biggest nation for utility-scale batteries behind China and the US. Follow today’s news live

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Professionals Australia, the union representing workers at software company WiseTech has told Guardian Australia around 190 staff on the company’s product development and customer service teams have been notified their roles could go as part of 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.

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.

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.