The Albanese Government's announcement this week to strengthen copyright protections in response to artificial intelligence is an important moment for Indigenous creators.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, designers, writers and musicians, copyright is not just a legal safeguard. It is a recognition of ownership, cultural authority and the right to share work on their own terms.

By rejecting a proposal that would have allowed AI developers to freely mine creative works, the Government has affirmed that consent and compensation must remain central to Australia's creative economy.

The Copyright Agency, a not-for-profit organisation established to collect and redistribute royalties to Australian creators, welcomed the announcement today.

It noted that while creative works are essential inputs for AI systems, they must never be treated as free raw material.

This principle has enormous implications for Indigenous creators, whose stories, designs and languages are too often copied or reinterpreted without permission or benefit.

If large language models and AI developers are required to pay for the material they use, this could create a new revenue stream for Indigenous artists, performers and cultural businesses.

Properly designed, these payments could flow back to communities through licensing frameworks, cultural enterprises and collective management organisations, creating economic opportunity alongside cultural protection.

Across the world, generative AI platforms are already replicating Indigenous motifs and voices at scale.

The Albanese Government's stance helps draw a line and ensures that innovation does not come at the expense of integrity. The next step must be meaningful consultation with Indigenous creators and cultural organisations on how their work is used, licensed and remunerated.

This is a call for Indigenous voices to set the agenda in discussions that affect their creative and cultural material. Their participation will be essential to building a system that respects both commercial value and cultural context.

If Australia gets this right, copyright reform could do more than protect Indigenous creativity. It could help grow it.

By embedding fair payment, consent and cultural recognition in the emerging AI economy, we can turn a moment of technological risk into a new frontier of creative enterprise and community income.