Event: Parliamentary Friends of Tech Policy Shark Tank – AI Priorities For This Term

27th August 2025

Canberra 

It was heartening to see politicians from across Parliament join forces this week to form a non-partisan group to collaborate on the responsible diffusion of emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, across Australia’s economy, society and democracy.

As the Australian Parliament grapples with how to best respond to rapidly evolving technologies, the Parliamentary Friends of Tech Policy provides a valuable forum to discuss practical and evidence-based tech policy.

Marking the Groups establishment in the 48th Parliament, and supported by Tech Policy Design Institute, this week the Group hosted Tech Policy Shark Tank: AI Priorities For This Term at Parliament House.

We challenged international experts to outline the one AI reform they thought the Australia should prioritise in this parliamentary term. Australian expert ‘sharks’ commented on the pitches, before Q&A with Parliamentarians.

The event was Chatham House rule, but key themes emerged:

⚡ Clarity: plain-English definitions and clear typologies of the many components of AI and its supply chain are essential to building a nuanced regulatory response.

🌏 Global cooperation: Australia can’t regulate tech in isolation, global partnership are vital, especially in an increasingly tense geopolitical environment.

🇦🇺 Sovereignty: there was no consensus on the topical issue of sovereign capability, but there was convergence that people and skills must be prioritised as the foundation of national capability, not just infrastructure.

🚀 Regulation as an enabler: design macro and micro reforms that work together to build consumer confidence and deliver regulatory certainty: well design tech regulation creates the space for ambition AND accountability.