September 25, 2026
Australia's AI policies focus on managing the technology, not on what we want it to deliver.
To understand how Australia’s approach to AI policy compares to peers, we analysed 25 AI policy documents: 16 Australian (federal and state) and nine from the UK, US and Singapore. We asked the same four questions of each: what does it want AI to achieve, how will it govern the technology, what protections does it offer people, and how will any of it actually be delivered. Australia's typical AI policy document says far less about what AI should achieve, and how it will be delivered, than its international comparators. This is starker in WA: Western Australia has not yet set out how it wants AI to benefit the state.
