Addressing the University of Sydney yesterday in a speech on ‘AI in Australia’s interests’, prime minister Anthony Albanese announced that the unbounded use of creative works for the purposes of AI training will not be permitted there.
“Not everything produced in Australia is up for grabs. Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work,” said Albanese.
“Our laws will spell that out, plain as day. No company should use Australian books, music, art or news to build or train AI without the artist’s control. That includes the artist’s control of the price and value of their work. Anything less, is theft.”
Albanese also trailed plans for a new Office of AI, a government department to design Australian regulation, as well as a licensing framework for artist compensation and rights to use.
The new rules willl require data centres to underwrite their power supply, as well as abide by regulations regarding building locations, and caps on power and water usage. What those caps will be, exactly, is yet to be decided, aside from Albanese’s statement that Australia-based AI companies will be expected “to put at least as much energy into our grid as they take out of it”.
Considering Australia is the driest continent on earth, and, according to predictions by the Australian Climate Service and The Guardian, faces a “horrible future” of bushfires, drought, coastal flooding and extreme heat without urgent action — Albanese may be facing some public pushback, if regulations do not meet reasonable sustainability measures.
As it stands, data centres in Australia use around 4% of the grid-supplied electricity in New South Wales. By 2030 that could rise to 11%, says the Global Government Forum. As for water, data centres in Sydney are quoted for almost 2% by 2030, with a significant jump to 15-20% by 2035.
As for the Aussie government’s proposed licensing framework, Apra Amcos claimed in 2024 in its AI and Music Report that without one in place, Aussie and Kiwi songwriters and composer would face a 23% slash of their revenues — or over £260m pounds (A$500m).
In October 2025, Apra Amcos also pushed back against a legal exemption that would have allowed tech companies to train their AI on copyrighted materials without permission.
Australia was also one of the earliest countries to consider AI guardrails — including considerations around economic impact and cultural wellbeing of Indigenous communities — and was the first country to propose youth social-media bans.
“When I announced that our government would be implementing a social media ban for Australians under the age of 16, that was seen as radical,” Albanese also said in the Wednesday address. “We were told it was too late to act and too hard to implement.”
“By the time I was at the United Nations in September last year, countries were seeking us out to learn about the approach that we were taking. Today, more than 20 nations have implemented or are implementing social-media age restrictions of their own.”
