The Albanese government released its draft Best Practice Guide on the Adoption of AI in the Workplace in Australia on 12 November. The voluntary guide gives employers principles for planning AI use with their workers, including how to prepare for changes to jobs and skills. Public consultation runs until 27 January 2027.
Key points
- The voluntary draft has eight principles under the themes Plan, Enable and Embed.
- It calls for worker engagement, job design, skills development, AI governance and attention to workplace safety.
- The government separately plans mandatory AI standards and a regulator with penalty powers.
- Public consultation on the workplace guide closes on 27 January 2027.
Eight principles for workplace AI adoption
The draft follows government roundtables and forums involving unions, employer representatives, academics, small businesses and large employers. Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra, Kmart, Blackmores and Ramsay Health Care were among the companies involved. The government says businesses can adapt the guide to their circumstances rather than follow a prescribed method.
Its eight principles sit beneath three themes: Plan, Enable and Embed. They cover identifying where AI might be used and whether a workplace is ready, planning with workers, redesigning jobs, developing capabilities and managing changes to the workforce. The remaining principles concern AI governance, risk management, and work health and safety. The guide presents these as practical approaches for employers considering adoption, not obligations imposed on them.
The government argues that employers need workers’ confidence if they are to benefit from AI. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth said employers and workers should share in the opportunities from adoption. Her stated aim for the guide is to put the workforce at the centre of decisions about how the technology is introduced.
The release includes accounts of AI use at three organisations. Brisbane Catholic Education reported that AI helped 71% of its educators spend less time on administrative work. According to the government release, more than 32,000 Commonwealth Bank employees engaged with personalised tools for careers, skills and learning. The release says an AI-enabled solution cut a Blackmores Group manual data-entry task from 3 days to 10 minutes. Those are the organisations’ reported experiences, offered as examples of adoption rather than requirements for other employers.
Qantas plans to move 850 positions overseas
The guide arrives alongside a dispute over jobs at Qantas. The airline announced plans to move 850 domestic positions overseas under an outsourcing deal with Accenture, Yahoo News reported. The Australian Services Union blamed AI for the cuts, according to that report. Its assistant national secretary, Scott Cowen, warned against using AI announcements as a pretext for offshoring.
Rishworth told ABC Radio National that the guide could help employers retain staff and develop their skills, the report said. She argued that workers affected by changes to their tasks or roles should receive investment in their abilities. In the Qantas case, she said the employees due to leave from mid-2027 would have benefited from direct consultation about AI implementation and, under best practice, should have been offered alternative roles.
Those are the kinds of decisions the voluntary guide asks employers to consider: involving staff before implementation and planning for the consequences for their work. Rishworth’s comments about Qantas concern how workers facing job losses might have been treated. The union’s account of AI’s role in the cuts remains its own.
Mandatory AI standards follow a separate track
The government also announced plans to introduce mandatory AI standards and a regulator empowered to penalise technology companies that fail to comply, Yahoo News reported. AI Affairs has previously covered Australia’s plan for an AI safety regulator with penalty powers and its plan to require AI incident reports after an OpenAI agent breach. Those proposals are distinct from the voluntary workplace guide.
Independent Senator David Pocock welcomed the government’s proposed safeguards but criticised their timing. “Really frustratingly, we’ve lost years in protecting Australians from the harms and the high-risk aspects of artificial intelligence,” he told Radio National. He called for the proposals to be strengthened.
The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations is taking responses to the draft through its consultation hub. Public consultation on the Best Practice Guide on the Adoption of AI in the Workplace closes on 27 January 2027.
