The Federal Government has unveiled a long-awaited national plan to boost Australia’s competitiveness in the rapidly expanding AI sector while putting safeguards in place to protect the public.
The National AI Plan, announced today, lays out how Australia will build stronger digital infrastructure, back local AI developers and attract global investment, all while helping workers and communities adapt to new technologies.
The roadmap’s release has been underway since 2024 and follows the government’s August announcement that AI would become a national priority amid consultations on copyright reforms to protect creative industries. It has also committed $29.9m to launch an AI Safety Institute in 2026 to monitor risks and support regulators.
Another key focus of the plan is an expansion of AI across industries and improving public services. Alongside these, the plan introduces new legislative and regulatory measures aimed at curbing potential harms, ensuring the country can embrace AI’s benefits without compromising safety or Australian values.
Industry Minister Tim Ayres said the plan is about “making sure technology serves Australians, not the other way around”.
“This plan is focused on capturing the economic opportunities of AI, sharing the benefits broadly, and keeping Australians safe as technology evolves,” Ayres said.
Sunita Bose, managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI), said the announcement brings clarity to the Federal Government’s approach to AI.
“Realising the significant economic and social opportunities of AI requires thoughtful regulation that strengthens national capability and supports responsible innovation,” Bose said.
“DIGI welcomes the focus on building a strong and safe AI ecosystem for Australians, including through the establishment of an AI Safety Institute.”
Bose added that collaboration between industry and government will be essential to help drive responsible innovation and strong social and economic outcomes.
“DIGI will continue to engage with the Government on Australian policies, industry codes and regulatory settings that support a trusted and thriving AI sector.”
Professor Shonali Krishnaswamy, Director of Monash University’s AI Institute within the Faculty of Information Technology, said the National AI Plan is very timely.
“It is excellent to see that the Federal Government is hearing the voices from the Productivity Commission,” Krishnaswamy said. “We live in the Age of AI, and this technology has tremendous potential to supercharge the Australian economy if harnessed carefully and responsibly, but without over-regulation.”
Krishnaswamy said there is a “real demand” for an AI skilled workforce, including ‘AI bilingualists’ – people who are fluent and conversational in AI and fluent and conversational in their own domain, such as finance, logistics or healthcare.
“Australia will need to invest in formal education, micro skills and on the job training to create this workforce rapidly,” Krishnaswamy said.
“Australian adoption of AI needs to pick up pace to catch up with other countries internationally and in the region. For example, Singapore has set up 50 AI innovation labs led by different companies and research institutions in just over a year, which creates high value jobs in the local economy.”
Krishnaswamy said the creation of the AI Safety Institute is also another long overdue step, pointing out that many countries have already established such centres.
“Australia has excellent AI research and innovation that is world leading in many areas. For example, our researchers have developed one of the largest open source deepfake detection benchmarking datasets, with well over 1 million deepfake images used by over 100 organisations globally,” he said.
“The hope is that the AI Safety Institute will connect and collaborate with the world leading researchers and experts in this area in universities across the country, and bring cutting edge sovereign capability in AI to Australian industry, government and public sector organisations.”