Australia’s AI future relies on our scientific capability
This week is National Science Week. When the Minister for Industry, Senator Tim Ayres, launched it at Questacon, he put it well: our scientific capability is critical to Australia’s economic security, resilience and productivity.
AI capability is, at its heart, a science and workforce story. Every serious AI system this country will rely on starts the same way as any scientific breakthrough, with researchers, training and the patient work of building expertise.
Our national conversation on AI has largely focused on data centres, the power they’ll draw and the water they’ll need. Those are legitimate questions. The Albanese government’s new AI framework, with mandatory standards and a new Office of AI, responds to those concerns.
But data centres are the foundation, not the finish line. The real goal is the ability to build, govern, audit and adapt the AI systems within them.
That’s what turns a building full of chips into a national asset: the skills to run it and the standing to shape how it’s used.
That’s sovereign capability and it presents a genuine opportunity for Australia.
When we invest seriously in scientific capability, in people as well as infrastructure, we grow leaders. That means investing in our universities and research institutions, and in the scientists and engineers who’ll design and run these systems.
That matters across three fronts. First, defence and intelligence, where surveillance, logistics and cyber are increasingly powered by AI. We need to trust these systems when it counts.
Second, critical infrastructure. AI is becoming embedded in our energy grid, hospitals, ports and financial sector. The expertise to audit, update and secure these systems should sit here with Australians, not offshore.
Third, the integrity of our own information environment, which is increasingly shaped by AI systems that don’t always operate in the interests of Australian citizens.
A recent John Curtin Research Centre report, Defending Australia: A National Artificial Intelligence Sovereign Capability and Security Agenda for the 21st Century, makes this point clear. Australia doesn’t need to compete on frontier, general-purpose models. We need sovereign capability where dependence carries the most risk, with systems suited to our own environment.
As the report puts it, a system is only sovereign if Australians can govern it, not simply operate it.
If we get this right, the benefits won’t be limited to defence. The report argues Australia could become a trusted AI governance partner in the Indo-Pacific, exporting the standards and systems we build here to partners seeking an alternative.
Greater AI sovereignty will enhance our relationship with our allies. And being a trusted partner also means being a capable one. If Australia excels in AI, that makes us a more attractive and more versatile partner.
This calls for sovereign models and computation capacity.
It means data sovereignty for our firms and governments, and it means investing in the workforce, because data centres are only sovereign if we run them.
As Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton has said, engaging Australians with science is how we invest in home-grown innovation, breakthroughs and advancement.
That’s why I was pleased to see the recent ALP National Conference back real protections for workers, including a fair share of productivity gains, further upskilling and safeguards against surveillance.
Government, industry and unions all have a role to play, and we need to build our AI skills pipeline by leveraging our universities and TAFEs.
National Science Week exists to spark the curiosity of the next generation.
Our task is to make sure there’s a serious career, and a sovereign purpose, waiting for our kids when they reach the workforce.
AI is an inevitable part of our strategic future.
Australia must build the capability to compete on our own terms, or we get left behind. The Albanese government is determined to ensure Australia leads, not follows, in the technologies that will shape our future.
This is a transcript of a speech that Senator Raff Ciccone, chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, delivered in the Senate on 17 August 2026.
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