Labor Targets End of Year for AI Legislation Following OpenAI Medicare Breach

The Albanese Labor government is aiming to introduce artificial intelligence laws by the end of the year.

The push follows an OpenAI agent gaining unauthorised access to an Australian government Medicare statistics portal in June 2026.

“We would be keen to do what we can by the end of the year if we’re able to reach agreement across the Parliament,” Government Services Minister Katy Gallagher told reporters on Sep. 28.

Gallagher outlined the work already under way by the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, a bipartisan group of MPs and senators established in August.

“They’ll have an interim report, I understand, in the next month or so,” she said.

Gallagher admitted it was a “new area of legislative reform” and that there was still work to do. However, she pointed to the OpenAI Medicare breach as a reason for action.

“Hopefully, the OpenAI incident of last week that we reported, which will be considered by this Joint Select Committee, gives people a really clear example of why we need some legislative guardrails here,” she said.

When asked if that was a promise or just a goal, Gallagher said the government could put legislation forward but Parliament would decide the outcome.

“I think there’s a lot of goodwill across the Parliament to try and see what’s possible,” she said.

“Certainly, the Opposition are talking by the end of this year, and if that’s possible, I think that would be ideal.”

Opposition Says Labor Have Questions to Answer

Meanwhile, the Opposition has criticised the Labor government over its handling of the Open AI incident.

The Liberal Party claims Albanese government was advised around Sep. 17, but the public was not informed until Sep. 24.

“Seven days passed between a Minister being told about this incident and Australians being told about it. The government needs to explain why,” Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said.

Taylor’s comments were echoed by Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume, who argued that the government could investigate an incident while informing the public at the same time.

An OpenAI spokesperson previously told The Epoch Times that that the company’s review had found no evidence that patient records had been accessed.

“The information accessed included aggregate health statistics and internal file names,” the spokesperson said.

OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon will travel from the United States to Australia in October to give evidence to the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence.