Australia Opens Draft AI Workplace Best Practice Guide

Australia has released a draft Best Practice Guide on the adoption of AI in the workplace and opened it for public consultation. The announcement came on 12 November 2026 from Amanda Rishworth, the minister for employment and workplace relations, and from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The document is draft guidance, and it is voluntary. It is not a law.

Consultation closes at 11:59pm AEDT on 27 January 2027 (12:59pm GMT, Europe/London, on the same date). Feedback is being taken through the department’s consultation hub.

Eight principles, under Plan, Enable and Embed

The guide is organised around three themes, Plan, Enable and Embed, and eight principles. As listed in the minister’s release, they are: capturing the opportunity; identifying use cases and assessing workplace readiness; cooperative planning and worker engagement; designing work and jobs; building capability; managing workforce transformation; establishing AI governance; and proactively managing risks and work health and safety.

The minister’s release describes the draft as “a guide focused on collaborative workplace transformation that helps businesses maximise the benefits of AI adoption.” The department’s announcement puts the same idea in slightly different words, saying the guide “emphasises that best practice AI adoption is about workplace transformation, not solely a technology rollout,” and that it is intended for businesses, workers and their representatives, whatever stage they have reached.

The minister’s release says the draft is the result of roundtables and forums with unions, employer peak representatives, academics, small businesses and large employers, “including Microsoft, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra, Kmart, Blackmores and Ramsay Health Care.” DEWR adds that it was developed in consultation with the tripartite AI Employment and Workplaces Forum, with insights from industry organisations, large employers, small-business representatives, unions, government and academics.

“The Best Practice Guide makes it clear that AI works best when the workforce is at the centre of the adoption process,” Rishworth said.

Case studies, as the minister presents them

The minister’s release also offers three workplace examples, which it presents as reports from the organisations concerned rather than as findings of a government audit. Brisbane Catholic Education, it says, “reported that AI has helped 71% of its educators save time on administrative tasks.” Commonwealth Bank “has used AI to support workforce development, with more than 32,000 employees engaging with personalised career, skills and learning tools.” Blackmores Group, it says, “reduced a manual data-entry process from 3 days to just 10 minutes using an AI-enabled solution.”

Those figures should be read as the minister’s account of what the named organisations have reported. They are illustrations attached to a draft guide, not measurements that this announcement independently verifies.

Businesses, workers and unions, industry groups, state and territory governments, not-for-profit organisations, academics and members of the public are all invited to comment before the January deadline.

A voluntary draft, not a workplace rule

The first fact to keep hold of is the legal status. A best-practice guide that is still in draft, and that is open for comment until late January, does not bind an employer or a worker. It is closer to a suggested method than to the kind of statutory regime Australia has separately said it is considering for a frontier AI safety regulator. Today’s notices do not say how, or whether, the workplace guide would sit under that planned regulator, and they should not be read as if they had.

The eight principles are deliberately broad. “Capturing the opportunity” and “building capability” will mean different things in a hospital, a bank and a school, which is probably why the government has included case studies from several sectors. Breadth is also a limit. A list of principles can help a workplace ask better questions; it does not, by itself, settle disputes about job design, consultation, or safety when a particular tool is introduced. Those questions remain for each workplace, and for whatever law already applies.

Other governments are taking a harder-edged path on the jobs side of the same debate. A South Korean bill would require firms to report AI-driven mass layoffs, which is a legislative proposal, not a voluntary guide. China has told officials to cushion AI-related job losses while they look for new roles. Australia’s draft sits in that wider conversation, but it is a different instrument: advice for adoption, issued for consultation, with worker engagement written in as a principle rather than as a reporting duty.

The case studies will be read, by some, as proof that the approach already works. They do not bear that weight on the evidence published today. They are selected examples, attributed by the minister to the organisations involved, and they measure different things: time saved on administration, uptake of a learning tool, and the shortening of one data-entry process. Useful, if accurate, as illustrations; insufficient as an evaluation of the guide itself.

What happens next is the consultation. The draft can be changed before anything is finalised, and even a final version would still be guidance unless ministers later choose to give it some other force. The date to watch is 27 January 2027. Until then, Australia has a voluntary draft about how to adopt AI at work, not a new workplace law.

Sources

1. The Hon Amanda Rishworth MP, “Draft best practice guide for AI adoption in the workplace released,” 12 November 2026. https://ministers.dewr.gov.au/rishworth/draft-best-practice-guide-ai-adoption-workplace-released
2. Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, “Consultation is now open on the draft Best practice guide on the adoption of AI in the workplace,” 12 November 2026. https://www.dewr.gov.au/workplace-relations/announcements/consultation-now-open-draft-best-practice-guide-adoption-ai-workplace
3. DEWR consultation hub, “Best practice guide on the adoption of AI in the workplace – Draft.” https://consultations.dewr.gov.au/adopting-ai-in-the-workplace-best-practice-guide-draft

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Australia Plans an AI Regulator and Frontier Safety Laws is the nearest TSN account of a separate, firmer Australian proposal; today’s workplace guide is draft, voluntary advice, not that planned statutory regime.

Also relevant:

• South Korean Bill Would Make Firms Report AI-Driven Mass Layoffs
• China Tells Officials to Cushion AI Job Losses as It Seeks New Roles