Technology policy in Australia: A 2023 report card

Piece by Jordan Guiao, Director of Responsible Technology at Per Capita’s Centre of the Public Square, via InnovationAus.

With a raft of tech related regulatory initiatives at various stages, Australia’s tech policy report card for 2023 could probably be described as a middling ‘satisfactory’. While many are underway, there are still such significant reforms that need to be pushed forward.

We must not lose momentum nor the will to hold tech giants to account, even as the tidal wave of newer technologies like artificial intelligence threaten to upend the technological landscape.

The Centre of the Public Square is a new Per Capita research centre:

The Centre of the Public Square (CPS) is dedicated to building better models of citizen engagement and civic collaboration.

Our public square has been transformed into a place of division, disinformation and diatribes, manipulated by global digital platforms that undermine trust in government, social cohesion and democracy. In order to combat this, we must build better ways of imagining what strong civic connections look like.

The Centre will advocate for responsible technology to mitigate against the harms of Big Tech and their influence in our public square. We will conduct Town Hall projects that build communities of interest in civil society and the general public. We will convene public events and discussions to build a scalable network of engaged citizens, restoring trust in public institutions and civic participation.