Telstra Says Bringing AI Training to Australia Could Benefit National Security

A phone screen displaying an AI logo is shown in this photo illustration on May 16, 2025. Oleksii Pydsosonnii/The Epoch Times

Telco giant Telstra has told a parliamentary committee that bringing leading AI companies’ work to Australia could benefit national security, provided the country retains control over how the technology is used.

Steven Worrall, chief executive of Telstra’s digital infrastructure unit, told the Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence that AI labs were “looking at Australia as a training destination”—a place to train their models. He described the prospect as “a threshold moment.”

The firms do not run these models in any country other than the United States today, Worrall said, so hosting them here would give Australia access to capabilities it currently does not have.

Telstra already works with government agencies using security-cleared Australian staff on Australian-owned networks, he said. The CEO added that defending the country now requires operating “at machine speed,” using tools built largely overseas.

But Worrall also warned that some AI models “could be used in ways that would be detrimental to the national interest.”

“We think it’s really important for us as a nation to be thoughtful about where do we want to maintain control in that supply chain. [It] doesn’t necessarily mean ownership, but it does mean control,” he told the Committee.

“And the first thing under that banner, of course, comes to security. How do we secure our nation when the nature of the threat that we’re being exposed to is only continuing to escalate, where some of these frontier lab models are being used in ways that, or could be used in ways that would be detrimental to the national interest.”

The issue extends beyond where AI companies are incorporated. Data sovereignty has become a growing concern for Australian businesses because information stored or processed overseas may be subject to foreign laws and government access.

A recent survey found that Australian businesses were lagging their international peers in protecting data held outside the country, highlighting the geopolitical risks that can arise when control over data crosses national borders.

Telstra’s submission (pdf) said the question was not whether artificial intelligence was wholly Australian-owned, but whether Australia retained the ability to decide how it was used. It noted that the market was concentrated among a small number of foreign providers.

Worrall also highlighted the importance of ensuring the economic benefits of AI were retained in Australia.

Worrall’s comments came after AI expert Toby Walsh from the University of New South Wales recently said he saw “absolutely no benefit” to national security from hosting overseas AI training in Australia.

The professor argued that Australia has a significant advantage as a destination for AI training and that the government should stand firm against lobbying from tech companies without weakening intellectual property protections.

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