Use of Automated Decision-making by Government
7 February 2025
On 24 January 2025, the Law Council provided a submission to the Attorney‑General’s Department in response to its Consultation Paper on the use of automated decision-making (ADM) by government.
This submission was informed by contributors from the Law Society of New South Wales, the Law Society of South Australia, the Queensland Law Society, and the Victorian Bar, in addition to our Federal Dispute Resolution Section’s Administrative Law Committee.
Following Recommendation 17.1 of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, the Government is considering reforms to introduce a consistent legislative framework in which automation in government services can operate. Accordingly, the Consultation Paper posed various high-level questions regarding the use of ADM in government services.
In our submission, we emphasised that the development of a consistent ADM framework is imperative, given that there is an increased reliance at the Commonwealth level on the use of computer programs to exercise statutory powers and functions—including to make, and assist in making, administrative decisions—instead of human officials. Whilst accepting that ADM can be beneficial to administrative law outcomes (especially in promoting efficiency and consistency), there is a current lack of guidance as to the contexts in which ADM should be permitted for use, and there is an additional concern that ADM processes currently operate largely without transparency.
Our submission highlighted that the threshold objective of regulation in relation to public sector use of ADM must be to ensure that it is employed consistently with administrative law principles that underpin lawful decision-making: lawfulness, fairness, rationality, and transparency. Further, as ADM (and artificial intelligence, more broadly) is an area where the law needs to be able to keep pace with developments, flexibility and adaptability will be important features of any legislative framework addressing those matters.
The Law Council looks forward to continuing to engage with the Government as it explores and progresses the development of a consistent and robust ADM framework for government services.
Last Updated on 12/02/2025