The new national framework for AI is all about infrastructure. Where are the guardrails to protect citizens?

On 15 July 2026, the Prime Minister stood at the University of Sydney and announced a new national framework for artificial intelligence, a new Office of AI, mandatory standards for data centres, and a renewed pledge that creators keep control over their work. Legislation is promised for 2027.

This was presented as a government finally getting serious about AI. But look at what came before it and a different picture forms: a government that has spent 18 months quietly retreating from the one part of AI regulation that was actually about protecting people, while dressing the retreat up as progress.

In September 2024, then Industry Minister Ed Husic proposed 10 mandatory guardrails for high-risk AI. Two of them mattered more than the rest: a requirement for meaningful human oversight of AI decisions, and a right for anyone affected by an AI decision to challenge it. Alongside them sat requirements for testing, risk management, transparency for end users and a certified assessment of compliance. This was, whatever its flaws, a genuine attempt at citizen-facing regulation.

It did not survive contact........

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