In a speech on AI at the University of Sydney on July 15, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must keep ownership and control of their work, including the right to set its price, when it is used to train AI. Doing it any other way, he said, amounts to "theft", and he promised the law would make the point explicit.
He also said no country has yet got the balance right and that Australia would push for strong protections by taking part in the international debate rather than acting alone.
The music business read the speech as a sign that the government is holding its line. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland ruled out a new copyright exception for AI training in October last year, but tech lobbying has continued. A month before the speech, Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar argued that local copyright law makes building music AI in the country impossible, because a developer would need a deal with every recording artist in the world. Music groups replied that licensing schemes already exist.
Damian Rinaldi, chief executive of publishers' body AMPAL, welcomed the speech and said publishers are ready to agree fair licences with AI companies, while treating copyright itself as off the table. The next step the industry is watching for is how the promised legal wording turns into licensing in practice.
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