Portfolio — 25 May 2026
Minister for Industry and Innovation and Science Tim Ayres and Assistant Minister Dr Andrew Charlton announced on 25 May that Australia and the United Kingdom signed a Memorandum of Understanding on AI safety cooperation — the centrepiece development in Ayres's portfolio activity for the day [TA-260525-indust-d10a17434ee3]. The MoU establishes a formal link between Australia's AI Safety Institute and the UK's AI Security Institute, creating a channel for sharing information, expertise, and best-practice testing on emerging AI capabilities and risks [TA-260525-indust-d10a17434ee3].
The agreement also commits both countries to joint research and to supporting the International Network for Advanced AI Measurement, Evaluation and Science, positioning Australia within a multilateral framework for AI risk assessment [TA-260525-indust-d10a17434ee3]. The announcement is explicitly framed as advancing the National AI Plan's safety objective, and the media release confirms the government will establish a domestic AI Safety Institute to monitor, test, and disseminate information on AI capabilities and harms [TA-260525-indust-d10a17434ee3].
The day's output is a single, focused comms release; no parliamentary contribution from Ayres is recorded for this date.
The official records this note draws on — the raw primary documents themselves, as published.