Australian artists, writers and media figures have taken the fight against artificial intelligence to Parliament House this week.

Leading arts figures including William Barton, Mahalia Barnes, Andy Griffiths, Anna Funder, Warren H. Williams and Paul Dempsey gathered in Canberra on 1 July, urging the Albanese Government to “hold the line” against AI companies and their pushback against existing copyright frameworks.

Australian creatives at Parliament House on 1 July, 2026. Photo © Shoelace Creative

“Despite what tech might tell you, copyright is simple. If you want to use someone’s work, you need to ask permission. And copyright is also how authors earn a living,” said Australian Society of Authors’ Lucy Hayward.

“Instead of coming to creators and rights holders to do deals, big tech is throwing money at lobbying in Canberra for solutions that would enable them to use creators’ work in exchange for chump change. For all intents and purposes that’s wage theft for the creative industries.”

The group of artists and arts organisations including APRA AMCOS, ARIA, the Australian Writers’ Guild, AMPA and Mushroom Group note the Government’s “right decision” to reject a proposed text and data mining excemption for AI companies, and have further called on the Government to:

• Hold firm on the existing copyright framework and resist pressure from AI companies to reopen or weaken it.
• Continue to stand with Australia’s artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, performers, songwriters, composers, broadcasters, producers, publishers and rightsholders.
• Use government’s power to bring AI platforms to the table with Australian rightsholders for genuine licensing agreements built on permission and payment.
• Position Australia as a world leader in AI development that grows the economy while protecting Australian culture, Australian content and Australian creative jobs.

Leading supporters of AI’s development within Australian are pushing for the relaxation of copyright laws. In June, Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar said that current government frameworks make it “impossible” to train AI, and will lead to a multi-billion dollar loss as AI companies pass on setting up shop in Australia; APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston slammed Farquahr’s comments as “simply not true“.

“Canberra Airport’s never been so busy with people flying out from the US, putting pressure on the government to say there needs to be some trade-off in relation to data centres and investment… we want to see the collaboration … of tech industry and creative industries to the benefit of all Australians,” said Ormston at Parliament this week.

“Now’s the time for the government to double down on its investment in the opportunity for the creative industries in AI… The future’s bright, we need to hold firm, we’re open and ready to do business.”

The Atlantic recently released its AI Watchdog, which allows users to search for the content of musicians, authors and YouTube creators within major AI datasets. In June, Limelight found that the dataset contains recordings from every Australian state orchestra, as well as works written by leading Australian composers.