Australia’s AI Ethics Principles

Australia published its AI Ethics Principles on November 7, 2019 as part of a national AI ethics framework. The Department of Industry, Science and Resources describes the Principles as voluntary guidance for businesses and governments to design, develop and implement AI responsibly. The eight principles are: human, societal and environmental wellbeing; human-centred values; fairness; privacy protection and security; reliability and safety; transparency and explainability; contestability; and accountability. They call for beneficial outcomes, respect for rights and autonomy, protection against unfair discrimination, secure data, reliable operation, responsible disclosure, channels to challenge impactful use, and identifiable responsibility with human oversight. The Principles do not themselves create a regulator, licensing scheme, private cause of action or universal compliance duties. A law, procurement condition, contract or sector rule may make similar safeguards mandatory in a specific setting, but the ethical framework alone is not legislation. The distinction matters because government materials use prescriptive language such as “should,” while the instrument remains voluntary. On October 21, 2025, the government published Guidance for AI Adoption with six essential practices for safe and responsible AI governance. The department says this guidance evolves and simplifies both the Principles and the Voluntary AI Safety Standard. The Ethics Principles remain available as a source framework and the Standard still exists as a voluntary publication. The six practices are government guidance intended to help organisations adopt safe governance at levels suitable for their maturity and use cases. They do not transform the Principles into binding law. Teams should record which controls come from law and which come from voluntary ethics commitments.