Australia Publishes List of AI Priorities for Government Use and Privacy

The Australian government published a new list of AI consumer priorities on Sunday, under which Attorney General Michelle Rowland will lead development of new rules on AI use in automated government decision-making. The government is progressing legislation to create a digital duty of care, led by Minister for Communications Anika Wells.

A second round of reforms to privacy laws is planned to strengthen, modernise and simplify Australia’s personal data protection laws.

The Consumer Protections priority in the list includes a promise to examine options in consumer law, led by Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh. In May, Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth announced that humans would remain involved in the Jobseeker payment process.

Last year the Commonwealth Ombudsman found that almost 1,000 jobseekers had their income support payments unlawfully terminated via automatic cancellations. Earlier this year the ombudsman opened an investigation into the algorithm-based aged care assessment tool.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans last week for a new office of AI within his department and for rules around large energy-intensive datacentres to be legislated from next year. Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton stated on Sunday that Australia already has more than 200 datacentres that consume electricity equivalent to about 2% of the energy grid, with projections that consumption could triple over the next 10 years.

AI is expected to dominate debate at the Labor Party National Conference in Adelaide later this week.

Delegates, parliamentarians and union leaders have until Wednesday to seek amendments to Labor's AI policy platform before a vote. A draft of the platform indicates a focus on the impact of AI across the economy, including jobs, and a commitment to hold AI companies accountable to Australian values and laws.