Australia’s Parliament has established a new Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, creating a dedicated parliamentary forum for examining how AI should be managed as its use spreads across government, business and society.
The move matters for New Zealand because Australian AI policy often provides a useful comparison for our own approach. It also signals that AI governance is moving from broad policy discussion into ongoing parliamentary scrutiny.
Key facts
- The Australian Parliament established the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.
- The committee was created through resolutions of both the House of Representatives and Senate.
- It will provide a dedicated parliamentary mechanism for examining AI issues.
- The new committee follows earlier Australian parliamentary work on AI adoption and regulation.
- Australia is continuing to consider how existing regulation should apply as AI capabilities develop.
Our take
A standing parliamentary focus on AI should make it easier for Australia to examine new issues as they emerge rather than relying on one-off inquiries. That is increasingly important as agentic AI, synthetic media and automated decision-making develop faster than traditional policy cycles.
For New Zealand, the useful part will be watching the evidence, recommendations and regulatory approaches that come out of this work. Australia faces many of the same practical questions around privacy, professional services, public-sector adoption and business use of AI.
Sources
KiwiGen.AI 