Australia's senator Pocock clashes with Albanese minister over secret AI copyright claim

In Monday's session of the Australian Senate, independent Senator David Pocock claimed the government in February 2026 entered into a « top secret » information exchange with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. According to ABC News, Pocock cited a note he said came from the Department of Industry and Science; he said the note allowed the three companies to draw « for commercial use » on Australian academic journal content, government open-data portals, and certain publisher archives. The senator said « the copyrights of Australian authors and journalists were quietly sold ».

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic, alongside Senate Treasurer Katy Gallagher, rejected the claim. Husic said « there is no secret deal and no such licence was granted; the senator's document has been taken out of context ». The Albanese government said a formal AI licensing consultation with the Australia Council for the Arts and the Copyright Agency began in April, and no interim permissions had been granted during the process. OpenAI Australia spokeswoman Anna Mulligan told ABC « we have not received a citation permission for commercial use from the Australian government ». Google Australia and the Anthropic Pacific office issued similar statements.

Pocock requested an emergency Senate session, which was held in Canberra on Tuesday afternoon. Australian Society of Authors chief executive Sophie Cunningham said « until all the documents are released, authors will not get a real answer ». Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus directed the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee to investigate the document's origin within 24 hours. The Australian Copyright Owners Association said it is keeping open an option to file a A$2.8 million legal-costs case. The Australian dollar closed Tuesday with a weekly loss of 0.3% against the US dollar.