AU AI Policy Heats Up

By the Orchestra editors · 4 min read

TL;DR

Victoria proposes Australia's toughest AI workplace surveillance ban
Albanese government faces pushback on data centre approvals and recycled AI safety policy
Australian unis band together to build shared AI tools
China's new models tighten the frontier race, MCP gets a usability upgrade

Australian Tech

Victoria moves to ban AI workplace surveillance and biometric tracking

The Victorian government has proposed legislation that would bar employers from using AI to monitor worker behaviour or mine biometric data to read emotions without a legitimate purpose. Premier Jacinta Allan says it would be the toughest such law in the country.

Councils push back on PM's data centre approval framework

Local governments say Albanese's national framework for large data centre approvals could sideline them, while the opposition warns a new layer of federal environmental sign-offs could delay projects by years.

Australian universities form coalition to build shared AI tools

More than a dozen universities including UQ, UTS and Swinburne have joined a HEDx-led coalition to develop AI tools on shared infrastructure, targeting problems specific to higher education.

Next Capital snaps up Fujitsu's AU data centre portfolio

Private equity firm Next Capital is acquiring Fujitsu's Australian data centre business through its $375 million fifth fund, with plans to expand the five-facility fleet.

AI · Worldwide

China's Moonshot and Alibaba release frontier-class models

Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 and new Alibaba Qwen releases claim performance on par with OpenAI and Anthropic's best, at lower cost. The back-to-back launches signal America's frontier lead is narrowing fast.

MCP gets a stateless upgrade

The Model Context Protocol is shifting to a looser, stateless approach for session IDs on the server side, bringing it closer to how ordinary web services work and lowering the bar for implementers.