Speaking at the Queensland Media Club on Friday, former Rudd government treasurer Chris Bowen said there was a danger that post-mining boom Australia could leave workers in its wake.

Mr Bowen said Australia needed to produce "good, high-skilled, well-paying jobs in what some have called the second machine age", but it would prove to be a challenging prospect.

"When you buy your groceries these days, the chances are you use an automatic check out machine and you won't actually interact with a human being," he said.

"That is assuming, of course, you didn't order your groceries online.

"Likewise, those of us who travel a lot check in on our flights at a machine without interacting with an airline employee and we place our baggage on an automated conveyer belt, having scanned our boarding pass.

"On Australia's mine sites as we speak, there are large trucks travelling considerable speeds without a driver."

The shadow treasurer said more low-skilled jobs would fall victim to automation as technology advanced, not to mention other industries close to the hearts of many in the Brisbane audience.

"In the United States, Associated Press recently announced it would use robots, or automation technology, to write financial reports," Mr Bowen said.

"Instead of hiring journalists to churn out financial reports, robotic scribes will now undertake this work based on algorithms input into a computer.

"Who would have thought journalism – a profession in which so much value is added – could be automated, even a few years ago?"

Mr Bowen said while the technological advances had made the economy more efficient and improved the quality of life and healthcare for many people, it came with significant economic risk.

There was a potential, impending "great decoupling" of economic growth and employment rates, he said.

"Automation means that employment growth no longer automatically accompanies economic growth," Mr Bowen said.

"And as well, a hollowing out of the labour market, meaning that there are plenty of new jobs created for highly skilled and trained individuals.

"But others are forced into a diminishing pool with fewer and lower-paid jobs, meaning a stagnate average real wage growth and increasing economic inequality is the norm."

Mr Bowen said the years since 2000 in the United States had been the first time since records began that an increase in labour productivity had not been accompanied by an increase in employment.

"We haven't yet seen this phenomenon play out in Australia, but a government which ignores the likelihood of it happening here would be negligent," he said.