Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping how Australian governments deliver welfare services, but its impact on the charity sector remains unclear. This presentation outlines a tripartite position for charities in AI: as adopters who implement AI tools in their service provision; as affected parties whose end users and clients face increased algorithmic risks of unfairness; and as advocates challenging AI-driven government decisions. This new position that charities occupy conceals at least two different problems. First, there is the public benefit doctrinal requirement of charities, which imposes a consequential responsibility to take action to alleviate welfare unfairness. From within this norm, there becomes the revealing proposition that the disruptive force of AI on charities adds extra obligations and imperatives to their everyday activities. The additional obligations bring into sharp focus the limits charities face within these newly imposed roles. This presentation scopes each of these tripartite positions in the case study of the Commonwealth Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Integrated Assessment Tool, to reveal how charity governance must now adapt to absorb additional pressure points within each role.

Read Kim’s recent white paper on this topic: https://apo.org.au/node/333912

About the speaker

Kim Weinert is a Lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland specialising in charity law, not-for-profit governance and cultural legal studies. Her research interrogates the regulatory frameworks governing Australia's not-for-profit sector with a focus on governance. Kim is co-editor of Charity Law and Governance: private purpose, public benefit and the Regulatory Strategy (Hart, 2025) and co-author of the white paper AI and Australian Charites launched in March 2026.   

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