AI Policy and Governance Newsletter — December 2025
Australia's AISI launch and National AI Plan release make this the most consequential month for Australian AI governance in 2025 — APS practitioners need to engage with both.
Key points
- Good Ancestors' December 2025 newsletter covers Australia's National AI Plan, AISI announcement, and multiple international developments.
- The Australian AISI ($30m, early 2026 start) and National AI Plan are the headline items, with APS AI Plan also featured.
- Newsletter spans AI espionage, model releases, deepfake legislation, CSIRO restructure, and EU AI Act delays across 15+ distinct items.
Implications for Australian agencies
- Consider APS policy and strategy teams could engage directly with the National AI Plan and DTA's APS AI Plan 2025 — both are now live and shape the operating context for agency AI work.
- Monitor Agencies may want to monitor the AISI's establishment trajectory, funding adequacy debates, and its integration into whole-of-government AI safety coordination from early 2026.
- Monitor The ANU survey finding that AI attacks rank as Australians' top national security concern is worth tracking for implications on public communications and risk framing in agency AI strategies.
Implications are AI-generated. Starting points, not advice — see methodology for how they're framed.
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Weekly digest, 8 December 2025
"AI Policy and Governance Newsletter — December 2025"
Source: Good Ancestors – AI Policy & Governance Newsletter
Published: (undated)
URL: https://www.goodancestors.org.au/newsletter/2025-12
Good Ancestors' December 2025 newsletter leads with the Australian Government's release of the National AI Plan and announcement of the Australian AI Safety Institute, a $30 million body due to operate from early 2026. The newsletter notes broad support for the AISI but significant criticism of the Plan's voluntary, guidance-over-guardrails approach. Also covered are the DTA's APS AI Plan 2025, public concern data from ANU's National Security College (77% of Australians rate AI attacks as a major or moderate threat), Anthropic's reported AI-orchestrated espionage campaign, a wave of frontier model releases, Senator Pocock's deepfake bill, CSIRO restructuring, Trump's prospective AI executive order, and EU criticism over AI Act delays. Featured publications include IAPP's Australian AI governance analysis, RBA survey data on AI adoption, and the Tech Design Policy Institute's 'AI agency' discussion paper.
Implications for Australian agencies:
- [Consider] APS policy and strategy teams could engage directly with the National AI Plan and DTA's APS AI Plan 2025 — both are now live and shape the operating context for agency AI work.
- [Monitor] Agencies may want to monitor the AISI's establishment trajectory, funding adequacy debates, and its integration into whole-of-government AI safety coordination from early 2026.
- [Monitor] The ANU survey finding that AI attacks rank as Australians' top national security concern is worth tracking for implications on public communications and risk framing in agency AI strategies.
Retrieved from SIMS, 18 July 2026.