Mike Cannon-Brookes, the billionaire boss of Atlassian, has sparked outrage by replacing 150 jobs with artificial intelligence, and telling the discarded workers with a video message rather than face-to-face.
The sacked staff received a video from Mr Cannon-Brookes on Wednesday morning explaining that most of their jobs at the software company would soon be taken by artificial intelligence (AI).
In the video, Mr Cannon-Brookes stopped short of naming who was leaving, forcing staff to wait 15 minutes for an email about their fate.
Staff impacted had their laptops blocked, but are expected to be paid for the next six months.
The Atlassian purge came just hours after the Commonwealth Bank confirmed it would cut 45 call centre jobs and replace them with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to deal with customer enquiries.
As redundancies rolled out at Atlassian, its other co-founder Scott Farquhar was publicly praising the benefits of AI during a National Press Club of Australia address.
‘Firstly, most people don’t think about where their water or power comes from and people don’t think about where AI comes from or where the AI they use on their phone comes from every day,’ he said.
‘There is a huge boom in creating data centres for the region and, beyond that, there is a huge boom in using AI for everyday life.
Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes axed 150 jobs this week – not with a meeting or a call, but with a pre-recorded video
The billionaire, who once urged Australians to eat insects to save the planet from climate change, recently dropped $80million on a private jet – one that emits as much carbon in an hour as the average person does in a year
‘Every person should be using AI daily for as many things as they can,’ Mr Farquhar said.
‘Like any new technology, it will feel awkward to start with, but every business person, every business leader, every government leader and every bureaucrat should be using it.’
Mr Cannon-Brookes came under fire earlier this year for buying an emissions-belching Bombardier 7500 jet -valued between $75million and $80million – despite being an avid climate change campaigner.
Mr Cannon-Brookes admitted he had a ‘deep internal conflict’ about purchasing the plane, but ultimately decided his interests trumped those of the environment.
‘There’s a couple of reasons I’ve purchased a plane. Personal security is the primary reason … but also so I can run a global business from Australia, and still be a constantly present dad,’ he said.
‘So, this is a hard, continual trade-off I’ve decided to make.’
A single private jet emits as much carbon dioxide in an hour as the average person does in an entire year, with private flights 14 times more polluting (per passenger) than a commercial plane.
‘I’m still pretty damn focused on making an impact at a large scale, removing huge volumes of emissions through active investments and philanthropy,’ he said.
Mr Cannon-Brookes previously warned the world needs to change its eating habits by adding insects to its daily diet if the planet is to feed a global population of eight billion.
Co-founder of Atlassian Scott Farquhar at the National Press Club in Canberra
Mike Cannon-Brookes looked tense as he watched his co-founder speak about the benefits of AI
‘Insects are a huge part of a sustainable future,’ he said.
‘I’m a big fan of cricket flour and insect eating in general. The logic totally stacks up – Low planet footprint, high protein, sustainable etc.
‘Always looking for interesting opportunities in that space!’
Mr Cannon-Brookes believes Australia could be the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewable electricity’ if the political will was there.
He added: ‘We could power the entire world five times over from the Australian sun that we have.
‘It’s a good measure of how large our country is, and how much great sun we have. We have a country almost designed to benefit most from the renewable boom.
‘And we have 3 billion consumers nearby who can take our sunlight when we ship it up to Asia. We absolutely can be a renewable energy superpower.’
As part of his climate change agenda, Mr Cannon-Brookes became AGL’s largest shareholder in 2022, purchasing an 11 per cent stake to pressure the company into accelerating its move to renewable energy.
He used his influence to block AGL’s proposed demerger, which would have extended the life of its coal-fired power plants, and publicly called AGL “one of the most toxic companies on the planet” due to its high carbon dioxide emissions.
Annie Cannon-Brookes and Mike Cannon-Brookes in happier times
Now, as he navigates job cuts at Atlassian and the future direction of AGL, he is also dealing with the strain of an ongoing divorce.
The tech mogul, who has amassed a staggering fortune of about $24.38billion according to the latest Financial Review Rich List, split from Annie, his wife of 13 years, in 2023.
The news of the separation raised questions about how the pair would carve up their fortune, in addition to a $300million property empire.
This included the 1.1 hectare Fairwater estate, the home of the late Lady Mary Fairfax, in Sydney which they acquired in 2018 for $100million.
Just before the pair split, in June 2023, they also forked out $14.25million to buy a home in Newport, on Sydney’s northern beaches, neighbouring the $24.5million estate they purchased in 2020.
