National AI Plan

Summary

Australia's national AI plan, anchored in 3 goals with 3 actions each: capture the opportunity, spread the benefits and keep Australians safe. Its safety approach builds on existing, largely technology-neutral laws, with agencies and regulators keeping responsibility for AI harms in their domains, practical and risk-based protections, and targeted laws where needed. It establishes an AI Safety Institute to monitor, test and share information on emerging AI capabilities, risks and harms, and it promotes responsible practices and international engagement on AI safety.

Safety topics

Status notes

Released by the ministers on 2 December 2025; the Plan calls itself a starting point to be adapted as technology develops. Its 9 actions are: build smart infrastructure, back Australian AI capability, attract investment, scale AI adoption, support and train Australians, improve public services, mitigate harms, promote responsible practices and partner on global norms. Existing regulators are to report gaps in laws to the AI Safety Institute, and the government says it will intervene if more regulation is needed. Feedback on the 2024 proposals paper on mandatory guardrails informed the Plan, and the government will not proceed at this time with mandatory guardrails. The Government's response of 1 April 2026 to the Senate Select Committee on Adopting AI reports $29.8 million over 4 years from 2025-26, and $7.9 million a year from 2029-30, to establish the Institute; a committed Digital Duty of Care for technology companies; a legislative framework for automated decision-making in government services under development; and a Privacy Act requirement, from 10 December 2026, to explain substantially automated decisions in privacy policies.

Sources

Open the official source https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan

Secondary source: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australian-government-response-senate-select-committee-adopting-artificial-intelligence-ai-report

Local copy

Verification

History

1. 2026-10-18related: [{"slug": "australia-ai-safety-institute", "id": "AUS-07"}, {"slug": "australia- → [{"slug": "australia-ai-safety-institute", "id": "AUS-07"}, {"slug": "australia- — two-way link added: AUS-01, AUS-02 link(s) to AUS-062026-10-18-fix-related-links · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
2. 2026-10-17verification.level: B → A — level computed from the evidence by tools/pipeline.py2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
3. 2026-10-17notes: Released on 2 Dec 2025, according to the Government's 1 Apr 2026 response to the → Released by the ministers on 2 December 2025; the Plan calls itself a starting p — rewritten: release, the 9 actions, regulators reporting gaps to the Institute, the guardrails decision (consultation hub page) and the related measures in the Senate committee response; the MoUs with Anthropic and Microsoft are not in the stored files2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
4. 2026-10-17summary: Australia's flagship AI policy, built on three goals with three pillars each. On → Australia's national AI plan, anchored in 3 goals with 3 actions each: capture t — rewritten from the stored Plan: the 3 goals and their actions, the safety approach in the Plan's words (existing, largely technology-neutral laws; regulators keep responsibility; risk-based protections and targeted laws) and the AI Safety Institute2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
5. 2026-10-17secondary_url: https://consult.industry.gov.au/ai-mandatory-guardrails → https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australian-government-response-senate-s — the Government response to the Senate Select Committee on Adopting AI (1 Apr 2026), until now the official_url, supports the funding and related measures in the notes2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)
6. 2026-10-17official_url: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/australian-government-response-senate-s → https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan — the Plan's own DISR publication page, stored in this run; the Senate committee response it replaces is not the Plan itself2026-10-17-recheck-europe-3 · Claude Code (claude-opus-5-5)

Related records

Australian AISI Australia · Published (non-binding, current)

Australia mandatory AI guardrails proposal Australia · Revoked / withdrawn

Guidance for AI Adoption (AI6) Australia · Published (non-binding, current)

Australia APS responsible AI policy Australia · In force

Deepfake Sexual Material Act 2024 Australia · In force

Citation

Australian Government (Department of Industry, Science and Resources). National AI Plan. 2025-12-02. https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-ai-plan. Status: Published (non-binding, current); verified 2026-10-17 (level A). Local copy archive/AUS-06/2026-10-17/official.html retrieved 2026-10-17 21:35:55 UTC, SHA-256 ca6ad7bf7dea200932638f1678d45d6581894a8150ba73335c33711b23961985. Every AI Policy Ever, version 1.18 (snapshot 2026-10-18), record AUS-06.

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