The Federal Government announced this week that Australia will follow in the footsteps of the EU, US, UK, Japan, Canada and other major economies by establishing its own AI Safety Institute as a critical step toward ensuring that Australia has a pro-worker, pro-jobs and pro-growth adoption of Artificial Intelligence.
The new body will be established in 2026 under the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and will monitor and address potential risks of AI as the technology becomes more common in industry and government.
Minister for Industry, Innovation, and Science, Tim Ayres, said while AI could “revitalise industry, boost productivity, and lift the living standards of all Australians”, the Commonwealth also needs to keep Australians safe “from any malign uses”.
The ACTU’s Assistant Secretary Joseph Mitchell said, “Unions welcome the commitment of the Albanese Labor Government to ensuring the AI Safety Institute has the capability to hold developers accountable to Australian law and community expectations. This is crucial for scrutinising and testing models, often developed overseas.
“Working people must share in the benefits of AI. Too many livelihoods have been stolen in the rapid development of these models. The first step in sharing the benefits is protecting against the potential harms,” said Mr Mitchell.
Alongside this promising step by the Government, the Financial Sector Union (FSU) also this week detailed their roadmap for a digital “just transition” in response to the results of its second survey into AI’s effects on the finance sector. The roadmap is based on four pillars: consultation, data security, surveillance and redundancy.
FSU National secretary Julia Angrisano said "We have seen many employers actively adopting AI in their workplaces, with workers involved in developing technology (sometimes knowingly, and sometimes unknowingly).
"We have also seen the first round of job cuts directly attributed to AI."
In a mirroring of the "just transition" principles developed in the mining and energy sectors, Angrisano said the FSU had developed a roadmap that "places workers at the centre of this new technological era, ensuring they are protected from the worst impacts of AI and can share in its benefits".
The roadmap envisages "centring" worker voices around new technology/AI and promoting job security; ensuring worker data is secure; restricting worker surveillance so that it is only used to ensure safety; and guaranteeing access to training and education.
The need to apply guardrails to the implementation of AI in workplaces is widely agreed across the union landscape. It was the focus of this year’s HSR Conference “Reps Against the Machine”, where FSU assistant national secretary Nicole McPherson spoke about the impact of AI on the finance sector.
You can hear the HSR conference discussions about AI in the workplace at our HSR Conference 2025 - OHS Reps page.
Read more: Unions welcome new AI Safety Institute - Australian Council of Trade Unions