The PM has pledged to protect artists’ copyright. But without action on AI theft it is all hot air
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has vowed to protect Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists, saying they “must retain ownership and control of their work. Our laws will spell that out plain as day.”
In his speech on AI, delivered at the University of Sydney, he said:
How will his government legislate to protect Australian ownership of Australian work? Will it act on thefts that have already taken place?
What could be done
There are two main courses of action the federal government can pursue to protect Australian creators’ work. One is legislative and the other is legal.
Some arts groups are “encouraged” by Albanese’s speech. The Australian Society of Authors chair, Jennifer Mills commended the government
for sticking to its principles and seeing the value of Australian authors and Australian stories. Our rights as creators must be defended. Now big tech needs to come to the table and accept the facts.
This is not for lack of evidence. In 2025, the Atlantic published an online database of works that had been scraped by AI companies. Local authors were quick to discover their works had been a part of that process.
Anthony Albanese speaking on AI at the University of Sydney, July 15, 2026.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Taking action against multinational companies is not new ground in Australia. To name just one recent example, attorney-general Michelle Rowland announced the government would sue US manufacturer 3M over its use of forever chemicals.
Lawsuits are happening in other countries. In the US, publishers have just launched a lawsuit against Google, alleging it has illegally copied works to train its Gemini AI product.
The theft continues
No other country, said Albanese, had “got it right” in protecting creators “when it comes to AI training”. Australia will “build the best possible solution for ourselves”.
But any claims that Australia is “active and involved” are little more than hot air without action on the existing thefts of Australian material and a program for compensation. The latter could potentially take the form of an agreement brokered between the government and tech companies to pay creators for work that has been used in LLM training.
At the moment, there is no such payment from any AI company as compensation for the work these companies have used to train LLMs. There is no reason why this agency could not be involved with the development of a new system to tackle AI companies.
While Australia might self-identify as a small or relatively insignificant country, federal legislation, from the media bargaining code to the under-16 social media ban (leaving to one side deliberations on its efficacy), is making us a world leader on some tech issues.
