The Albanese government is consolidating Australia's AI agenda under a new Office of AI, sitting inside the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The move centralises what was previously scattered across portfolios and adds $101 million in funding over five years for AI and quantum industries.
The office will coordinate AI standards and align cross-government work. It is part of a broader push that includes more than $460 million in AI-related funding through the AI Accelerator and National Reconstruction Fund. The government is targeting $600 billion in GDP contribution from AI by decade's end.
Anthropichas signed an MOU backing the national AI strategy, with commitments to renewable energy and medical research. The company is opening a Sydney office as part of the deal. The government is also running a six-month trial with Microsoft on M365 Copilot for public service use.
What did not get resolved: copyright exemptions for AI training and rules around Australian-based data centres. Senator David Pocock has been pushing for clarity on both. The government appears to be weighing copyright protections against the need for more local data infrastructure, but no timeline has been set for decisions.
The Office of AI marks a shift from December's National AI Plan, which avoided standalone AI regulation and leaned on existing frameworks. Seven months later, AI is being treated as core infrastructure, not just another tech vertical.
For sales teams selling into government or enterprise, this matters. Procurement rules under the Buy Australian Plan now require agencies to approach local businesses first for contracts below Free Trade Agreement thresholds. If your patch includes public sector or regulated industries, the centralised AI office could mean faster decisions or slower ones, depending on how coordination plays out in practice.
The funding split: just over $20 million allocated to AI initiatives this financial year, with the rest spread across the next four years. Worth watching: how much of that flows to procurement versus internal capability build.