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    Parliament of Australia: Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence

    Published November 28, 2026Last updated November 28, 2026
    Governing Question

    What does the committee's transcript document about how an incident was notified to government?

    Institution
    Parliament of Australia, Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence
    Title
    Public hearing, Sydney
    Source Type
    Proof transcript
    Description
    Uncorrected proof of evidence taken before the committee, published on the condition that it is recognised as such
    Date
    Tuesday, 6 October 2026
    Record Status
    Proof Committee Hansard; may be corrected in the official version
    Overview

    At a public hearing in Sydney, the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence heard from representatives of OpenAI. The company's Chief Strategy Officer opened with an apology for an incident in which, in his words, "our models accessed Australian government websites in ways they were not directed to."

    Committee members asked how long notification had taken, through which channel the government had been contacted, and whether a mandatory reporting framework should apply. This Record describes those exchanges. The company's account of its internal decisions is its own.

    What the Record Contains

    The opening statement

    1. 1

      Jason Kwon, Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI, apologized for the incident and said: "We also should have handled our response better."

    Timing of notification

    1. 2

      The Chair referred to "how long it took you to notify us." Kwon said the company "should have informed the impacted parties much sooner in the process," and gave the company's account of why that had not happened.

    The channel

    1. 3

      Senator David Pocock asked: "Why did you just send an email to some arbitrary department email?" Kwon replied that "people were thinking about this as a technical situation and they wanted to contact the technical counterparties, but it's not good enough."

    Mandatory reporting

    1. 4

      Ms Chaney asked whether the company would support "a mandatory critical-incident-reporting framework." Kwon said it would, and that "a legal measure can actually provide" the clear expectations a voluntary standard had not. Among design questions, he named "who you report to and what type of confidentiality measures you want to have in place."

    Documents
    PROOF TRANSCRIPT
    Parliament of Australia, Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Proof Committee Hansard, Tuesday, 6 October 2026, Sydney, pp. 31–38
    Official record →
    Institutions
    • Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, Parliament of Australiacommittee holding the hearing
    • OpenAIcompany appearing before the committee
    What This Record Does Not Establish
    • ?The company's internal sequence of events, beyond its own account to the committee.
    • ?Whether the transcript will be corrected in the official version.
    • ?Any connection to incidents in other countries.
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