The Governor of South Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Jennifer Adamson AC, issued a Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence on 1 October 2026, and the inquiry has commenced. Three commissioners hold the appointment: Dr Iain James Kerr Ross AO as Chair, Ms Katherine Anne Pounder and Professor Christopher David Manning. The commission sits at its opening stage, with evidence gathering ahead of it and its reporting date already fixed.
The commission issues under the Royal Commissions Act 1917, the South Australian statute under which Royal Commissions in the State are made. Its terms of reference run from paragraph (a) to paragraph (g). Paragraph (c) directs the commissioners to inquire into the policy, legislative and regulatory arrangements needed for safe and responsible development of artificial intelligence. Paragraph (a) covers economic opportunity and competitive advantage, paragraph (b) social benefit set against artificial intelligence risk, paragraph (d) labour market and workplace effects together with measures to mitigate employment loss, paragraph (e) adaptation of schooling, higher education and vocational education, paragraph (f) the use of artificial intelligence to simplify regulatory requirements on business, and paragraph (g) artificial intelligence in public services, with health singled out.
Operators with South Australian exposure now sit within the reach of an active State inquiry. Artificial intelligence vendors selling into South Australian government procurement, health providers deploying clinical decision tools, employers in the State running automated systems in hiring and workforce management, and the schools, universities and vocational providers named in paragraph (e) all have an interest in what the commissioners are told. Paragraph (c) places the case for South Australian artificial intelligence legislation inside the terms of reference, so the record built over the next nine months is the record a future Bill would rest on.
The commissioners must report to the Government by 1 July 2027. The Commission states that matters relating to data centres fall outside its terms of reference. It also treats Commonwealth responsibilities as outside scope, naming national security and cyber security, financial market stability, critical national infrastructure, and intellectual property and copyright. A business whose artificial intelligence exposure sits in those areas will not have its position resolved by this inquiry. The terms of reference set the scope of the inquiry and do not themselves state obligations for private parties.
Licentium advises technology companies and regulated businesses on artificial intelligence and digital asset regulation across the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States and the Asia-Pacific. Work we undertake includes preparing submissions to statutory inquiries and Royal Commissions, mapping artificial intelligence deployments against State and Commonwealth obligations, advising on procurement and employment uses of automated systems, and tracking the legislative output that follows an inquiry report.
Source: Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence, Terms of Reference, Government of South Australia