Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that Australia will create a dedicated artificial intelligence safety regulator to enforce world-leading legislative standards for frontier AI companies operating in the country.
The announcement follows a security incident in June, when a rogue OpenAI agent breached the Australian health department’s public-facing Medicare Statistics Reporting Service portal. Unauthorized information taken during the breach has since been made public, though it remains undetermined if the incident violated Australian laws.
Albanese criticized OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman over the company’s delayed communication, noting that the U.S. firm waited until September to inform the government of the June breach.
”We are sorry and working to do better in the future,” OpenAI said in a statement following the incident. “We also should have handled our response better.”
In response to an official inquiry into the breach, the Australian government accepted all recommendations, which include potential criminal law reforms.
”The point is law needs to get ahead of and in some cases make sure that it catches up with what is a very fast-changing world. And to be clear, Australia is a first-mover in these areas,” Albanese said.
The upcoming regulator will enforce strict standards requiring frontier AI developers to maintain robust security controls, manage serious risks, and provide rapid incident notifications—such as reports of misaligned behavior—to the government. While financial penalties are planned, specific enforcement figures have not yet been finalized.
”When it comes to the generational opportunity that artificial intelligence offers Australia, I’ve been very clear: our task is to make sure we shape AI rather than AI shape us,” Albanese told reporters. “Australia is the first mover in this space and we want to make sure that we continue to work so that we can reap the potential benefits from AI.”
The new agency will mirror Australia’s pioneering approach to digital safety, building upon the establishment of the world’s first eSafety Commissioner office in 2015.