No hiring if an AI can do the job, staff at mining giant told
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One of the country’s largest mining companies has told staff that it won’t hire more people unless the job cannot be done by artificial intelligence, joining a wave of Australian corporations curbing their workforce because of the new technology.<br>Industry sources said employees at the $11.5 billion West Australian mining giant Mineral Resources have been told the company won’t hire staff if a role can be done by AI, or an existing employee using artificial intelligence tools, though it is unclear how widely the rule applies within the company.
Businesses are increasingly choosing between humans and AI to do tasks.Getty ImagesThe move comes after big Australian tech companies WiseTech and Atlassian both announced major job cuts this year driven in part by artificial intelligence.<br>A day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a major speech on how the country will manage the AI transition, Mineral Resources’ hiring restriction highlights the challenge the federal government has in balancing the productivity benefits of artificial intelligence against job losses and other risks.
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Industry sources have also said managers at Mineral Resources receive information about times that team members arrive at the office as the company pushes to increase productivity by having staff work in person together. A spokesman for the company, which faced governance issues and depressed commodity prices before a rebound in recent months, declined to comment.<br>Related Article
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While Australia is yet to see widespread AI job losses, employment growth has been slowing in occupations most exposed to automation, according to a recent federal government report.<br>Between November 2022, when AI tools started to become widely available, and February 2026, employment in the occupations most exposed to AI grew by 5.6 per cent, compared with 9.5 per cent for jobs that were least exposed.<br>Those highly exposed occupations — generally cognitive roles involving routine, predictable tasks — also recorded slower growth in hours worked, bigger falls in the number of job advertisements and a larger jump in unemployment.
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On Wednesday, Albanese reversed the government’s hands-off approach to AI regulation, announcing new Australian AI standards and a new Office of AI. He also signalled the need for data centres to create more jobs over the longer term.<br>As interest rates and price pressures have risen, businesses have looked to slim down their costs, and they have looked for ways to operate more efficiently.<br>Nearly one in three Australian businesses use AI for advanced tasks such as predicting demand, according to the Reserve Bank. And some are cracking down on office attendance.<br>While businesses have been cautious about attributing layoffs and hiring freezes directly to AI, several firms have done so in recent years.<br>Australia’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, last year axed 45 customer service roles, but it was forced to backtrack after the AI-powered “voice bot” it introduced led to a spike in workload. Earlier this year, the bank eliminated 300 jobs while announcing a $90 million program to prepare staff for an AI-driven workplace.
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CBA also requires employees to attend the office at least 50 per cent of the time, having cracked down on “coffee badging” where employees would swipe their access cards to get into the office, grab a coffee, then leave.<br>While tech companies such as Atlassian have said their approach is not “AI replaces people”, chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes has said it would be “disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas”.<br>Earlier this year, Atlassian cut nearly 500 jobs from its Australian workforce as AI reshaped its labour needs. WiseTech announced in February that it would cut 2000 jobs for the same reason.<br>Oil and gas giant Chevron last year axed hundreds of jobs in Australia, saying at the time it was “taking action to simplify our organisational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness”.
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A spokesperson for the company this week said Chevron uses AI to enhance workforce capability, improve decision-making and support safer, more efficient operations.<br>“While we continually evaluate how technology, including AI, can enhance the way we work, we do not view AI as a substitute for the expertise, judgment and experience of our people,” they said.<br>University of Melbourne labour market expert Jeff Borland said research so far showed the effect of AI on Australian jobs broadly remained minimal, but there was some...