Atlassian co-founder and Tech Council of Australia chairman Scott Farquhar has suggested leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline and accelerate building approval processes. Speaking at the National Press Club, Farquhar criticised the current system as slow and opaque, hindering development. He proposed AI-driven digital agents trained on historical data to predict application success rates in real-time, potentially reducing approval times to within a week.
Farquhar highlighted the potential for integrating government services via APIs, citing examples such as license renewals and childcare subsidies. He believes these processes should be fully digital and seamlessly integrated into third-party apps, dismissing lengthy consulting projects as outdated. Farquhar's vision aims to overhaul the housing approval system, making it more efficient and transparent for prospective builders, ultimately boosting development and addressing housing shortages.
Farquhar also sees Australia becoming a major data centre hub powered by renewable energy. He argues that Australia's abundant clean energy, stable rule of law, and access to cutting-edge chips position it favourably in the global market.
