AustraliaAI regulation

Regulation Status

• ❗️ This tracker only tracks developments at the Commonwealth (federal) level.
• The Australian Government is pivoting away from an entirely light-touch approach toward introducing purpose-built, mandatory AI legislation, establishing a new Office of AI to coordinate a whole-of-government framework. Under these planned Australian Standards for AI, large data centres will face legally binding rules to underwrite their own renewable power and meet strict resource-efficiency thresholds, while local creators will receive strong protections blocking AI companies from training models on their work without explicit consent and compensation. This targeted, mandatory regime will operate alongside broader, technology-neutral updates to existing privacy, consumer, and online safety laws to ensure comprehensive regulation across the digital economy.
• Mandatory AI governance obligations now apply within the Commonwealth public sector. From 15 June 2026, under the DTA's Policy for the Responsible Use of AI in Government (Version 2.0), non-corporate Commonwealth entities must maintain internal registers of in-scope AI use cases with accountable owners, publish standardised AI transparency statements, and ensure foundational AI literacy training for Australian Public Service staff; further obligations on impact assessments, oversight processes and incident reporting are scheduled to commence in December 2026.
• AI ethics framework available (federal level). A comprehensive AI assurance framework available at federal, state and territory levels.
• Online safety enforcement is active against AI-generated sexual and child-safety harms. By June 2026, eSafety Commissioner action under the Online Safety Act and Age-Restricted Material codes had resulted in seven widely used AI “nudify” services withdrawing from Australia or taking compliance measures; eSafety is also examining gatekeeper services and may pursue civil penalties for non-compliance.