# Voluntary AI Safety Standard (Australia)

- **Record type**: Policy instrument
- **Jurisdiction**: Australia
- **Instrument type**: Standard
- **Status**: Voluntary standard
- **Binding**: No — guidance, strategy or standard
- **Issuing body**: Department of Industry, Science and Resources
- **Adopted**: 2024-09-05
- **Published**: 2024-09-05

## In brief

The Australian Voluntary AI Safety Standard is a non-binding standard of Australia, issued by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Its current status is voluntary standard. Voluntary; aimed at organisations deploying AI in Australia, especially deployers of AI systems in higher-risk settings. 3 obligations are recorded against it, each with its source reference. Penalties: None; voluntary.

## Summary

The Voluntary AI Safety Standard gives Australian organisations ten guardrails for developing and deploying AI safely and responsibly: accountability and governance, risk management, data governance and protection, testing and monitoring, human control and intervention, user transparency, contestability, supply-chain transparency, record keeping, and stakeholder engagement. The guardrails were designed to align with the mandatory guardrails proposed for high-risk settings so that early adopters would be prepared if those became law.

## Scope

Voluntary; aimed at organisations deploying AI in Australia, especially deployers of AI systems in higher-risk settings. It creates no legal obligations.

## Who it applies to

Any Australian organisation deploying or developing AI (voluntary), with practical focus on deployers.

## What organisations must do

Nothing mandatory. Adopters implement the ten guardrails proportionately to the risk of their AI use cases.

## Key dates

Published 5 September 2024 alongside the mandatory-guardrails proposals paper.

## Penalties

None; voluntary.

## Obligations recorded against this instrument (3)

- **Establish accountability processes and a risk-management process (guardrails 1 and 2)** (Guardrails 1 and 2) — Guardrail 1 asks organisations to set up accountability processes including governance, internal capability and a strategy for regulatory compliance; guardrail 2 asks for a risk-management process to identify and mitigate risks across the AI lifecycle.
  - Binding: no
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/australia-vaiss-accountability-and-risk-management
- **Test and monitor systems, enable human control, and be transparent with users (guardrails 4 to 6)** (Guardrails 4, 5 and 6) — Test AI models and systems before deployment and monitor them in operation; enable meaningful human control and intervention; and inform end users about AI-enabled decisions, interactions with AI and AI-generated content.
  - Binding: no
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/australia-vaiss-testing-human-control-transparency
- **Provide contestability, supply-chain transparency and records (guardrails 7 to 9)** (Guardrails 7, 8 and 9) — Establish processes for people impacted by AI to challenge use or outcomes; be transparent with other organisations across the AI supply chain about data, models and systems; and keep and maintain records to allow third parties to assess compliance.
  - Binding: no
  - Record: https://aipolicytracker.org/obligations/australia-vaiss-contestability-supply-chain-records

## Provenance

- **Permanent id**: AIPT-POL-0021 (https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0021; never changes or gets reused)
- **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/australia-voluntary-ai-safety-standard
- **Official source**: https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/voluntary-ai-safety-standard
- **Source document**: Voluntary AI Safety Standard
- **Published by**: Australian Government, Department of Industry, Science and Resources
- **Review status**: verified
- **Confidence**: high
- **Facts last confirmed**: 2026-09-26
- **Confirmed by**: Bhaskar Bhatt (see https://aipolicytracker.org/reviewers)
- **Retrieved**: 2026-10-27
- **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- **Cite as**: AIPolicyTracker (2026). "Voluntary AI Safety Standard (Australia)" [AIPT-POL-0021, record version 1, verified 26 September 2026 by Bhaskar Bhatt]. https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0021 (accessed 27 October 2026).

> This record is a structured summary with a link to the official text. It is not legal advice. Open the official source before relying on any date or duty. How current each record type must be is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/verification; what a record must carry at all is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/coverage.