A new Office of AI starts immediately. Proposed standards that would force data centres to fund their own power and minimise water use go to National Cabinet in August, with legislation expected in early 2027.
Australia plans to place binding legal obligations on large AI data centres and deny AI companies a copyright shortcut for training their models, under a national framework Prime Minister Anthony Albanese set out at the University of Sydney on 15 July 2026.
Per the government announcement, a new Office of AI sits inside the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet effective immediately, tasked with coordinating a set of 'Australian Standards for AI' that build on the country's existing Data Centre Expectations. The Australian Government casts the plan as the first such framework any government worldwide has moved to legislate.
The government announcement sets out what the standards would demand of large data centres. The Australian Government says they would be legally required to underwrite their own new power supply and to pay their full share of grid-connection costs, so that households' energy bills are not affected. Operators would also have to cut their power use on demand to help steady the electricity grid, and to minimise water use — details also reported by SBS News and ABC News (Australia).
On copyright, Albanese spoke for the Australian Government: no company, he said, should train AI on Australian books, music, art or news unless the creator keeps control over how the work is used and what it is worth; 'anything less is theft.' The stance reaffirms a long-standing Labor position: the party has ruled out giving AI firms a text-and-data-mining exemption that would let them train large language models on Australian content without paying creators.
Ahead of meetings with senior cabinet ministers earlier in 2026, Anthropic had pointed to Australia's unsettled policy as a major barrier to fresh investment. After the speech, Anthropic general counsel Jeff Bleich said the company respects the process Albanese outlined and takes seriously its responsibility to meet the government's requirements for AI developers.
Much of the detail remains unwritten. The speech carried no concrete measures on AI-specific legislation, funding, copyright, consumer rules or workplace rights, with specifics expected only after a consultation period. Greens senator David Shoebridge criticised the new office as lacking statutory powers, calling it 'a single door in his office' that would not deliver the protections Australians want.
The proposed data-centre standards are not in force yet. They go to the National Cabinet of state premiers and territory leaders in August 2026 for agreement, and the Australian Government expects to legislate them only in early 2027, according to ABC News (Australia).