National Framework for the Assurance of AI in Government Australia's intergovernmental anchor for government AI assurance

Why it matters for NETEVO

This is the AU intergovernmental anchor for AI assurance in government — jointly authored by the Commonwealth and every state and territory government, signed at the June 2024 Data and Digital Ministers Meeting, and licensed under CC BY 4.0. It sits above the NSW AI Assurance / Assessment Framework in the AU intergovernmental hierarchy, with state-level frameworks operating as the delivery layer for the principles this national framework establishes.

The single most directly binding AU AI assurance framework for government supply chains. Where the AI Ethics Principles 2019 anchor baseline ethics thinking and the Voluntary AI Safety Standard anchors non-government voluntary adoption, the National Framework anchors government-sector AI use across all AU jurisdictions. Any AU enterprise tendering for Commonwealth or state and territory government work needs to demonstrate alignment with this instrument.

One framework, multiple cross-walks. The framework cross-walks cleanly onto the NSW AI Assurance / Assessment Framework, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, the NIST AI 600-1 Generative AI Profile, and the EU AI Act. NSW's framework expressly aligns with the National Framework plus the EU AI Act; the National Framework itself cross-walks to NIST AI RMF. In the wider stack of AI governance instruments it sits between the international standards layer and the operational state-government layer.

The National Framework is the policy frame supplier officers and procurement teams read before any AI procurement decision is taken; the state frameworks beneath it, such as the NSW instrument, are where its principles are operationalised — the layer at which NETEVO's Law-to-Code Methodology applies.