End Up Here

Australian Parliament · inquiry record

Who gets
the future?

AI and robotics are coming like a freight train. Australia cannot simply stop them; it can guide the transition, explain the benefits and make the destination work for ordinary people.

Current statusSubmission period closed · 14 September 2026

01 / The inquiry

A broad brief
for Australia.

The Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence was appointed by the House of Representatives and Senate on 20 August 2026. Submissions closed on 14 September 2026; the committee is due to report by 30 November 2026.

The terms of reference cover opportunity and productivity; regional access; AI and robotics; small and family business adoption; sovereign capability and Australian data; jobs and skills; Commonwealth services; law and regulation; copyright; harms; cyber and national security; and emerging AI capability.

This page records Martin’s questions and proposals about the inquiry. It does not confirm that a final submission was lodged.

Official inquiry page ↗Published submissions ↗Submission guide ↗

Illustration and scene

Residents discuss a shared plan around a map in an editorial cartoon.
The wider ideaAI-generated editorial cartoon
Residents listen and contribute around a map at a community meeting.
Everyday lifeAI-generated illustrative scene, not documentary photography
02 / Proposal one

Make capability
ordinary.

AI should not become a private advantage available only to the largest firms and institutions. Australia should build practical access, literacy and local capability so people, small businesses, families and regions can use useful systems on their own terms.

  • Support hands-on AI education for ordinary people, schools, community organisations and small business.
  • Invest in Australian research, data and infrastructure that can be understood and governed locally.
  • Measure adoption by real public benefit, not only by investment, compute or headline productivity.
  • Make regional and suburban access part of national AI policy from the beginning.
03 / Proposal two

Keep a person
answerable.

When AI enters government services, work, health, money, identity or public safety, people need more than a promise that a system is accurate. They need an intelligible explanation, a route to challenge the result and a human being or institution that remains accountable.

  • Require clear notice when AI materially informs a Commonwealth decision or service.
  • Keep records that allow decisions to be audited, corrected and explained.
  • Employ and train more lawmakers, legal experts, regulators and public-interest advisers so rights can be written, understood, enforced and appealed in practice.
  • Match governance to impact: experimentation for low-risk uses, stronger controls for high-impact systems.

04 / The questions I want to answer

What should
Australia choose?

What does abundance mean in practice?
How can AI and robotics reduce drudgery, improve care, help people live well and make useful knowledge more available—rather than simply concentrating output and power?

How do we guide the ship?
What can government do to explain the transition, reassure people without patronising them and make the benefits visible and widely shared?

How do people live?
If AI and robots do much more of the work, how do citizens receive income, services, ownership, education, mobility and meaningful choices?

Who’s minding the robot?
Is the mind in an AI us, a version of us or a separate kind of mind—and what responsibility must remain visible as technology becomes more capable?

What is the New Earth Catalogue for?
It is a realistic attempt to map the possible destination and the energy, water, housing, care, mobility and public systems needed to make that future real.

05 / Inquiry questions

Evidence,
then proposals.

Small and family business What stops useful adoption, and what would make capability affordable and locally supported?

Work and skills How do we protect the quality, security and meaning of work while widening access to the benefits of automation?

Public services Where could Commonwealth AI improve services, and what transparency and accountability should be mandatory?

Data centres Can the government explain, plainly and early, what data centres do, how their benefits reach everybody, and exactly how water is managed so shared water resources are not destroyed?

Data and sovereignty Which Australian data, institutions and domain-specific models—including open-weight systems—should be developed as shared national capability?

Minding the systems As AI becomes more capable and embodied, who is responsible for the decisions, permissions, goals and consequences?

06 / Closed submissions and report

Submissions
are closed.

Submissions closed on 14 September 2026. The committee is due to report by 30 November 2026. This page preserves the inquiry questions and proposals for reference; it does not represent a submission as lodged.

Committee contact: ai.joint@aph.gov.au · +61 2 6277 3863 · PO Box 6100, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

Last reviewed 3 October 2026 · No final submission is represented here as lodged without a confirmed receipt.

Open the submissions list Discuss this inquiry record