New AI Plan for Australia’s Public Service describes ORCA Opti Perfectly

14 November 2025

Last week, the Australian Government released the APS AI Plan 2025. Before we go any further, it is worth clarifying what the APS is and why this plan matters.

The Australian Public Service is the workforce that delivers federal services, maintains national systems, supports policy, and oversees critical government functions. It includes departments such as Defence, Health, Services Australia, Home Affairs, the Digital Transformation Agency, and many others. After this point, the term APS refers to this system wide federal workforce.

The new plan is not simply a policy update. It is a declaration of how Australia intends to use artificial intelligence as secure national infrastructure. It outlines how AI will be introduced responsibly, how public trust will be protected, and how agencies will adopt AI at scale without compromising security or governance.

The plan is organised around three pillars. Trust. People. Tools. Together, they outline a direction that prioritises integrity above speed, and accountability above experimentation.

For those of us working in sectors like defence, critical infrastructure, healthcare and supply chain security, this plan is timely. It articulates what many of us already understand. AI becomes operationally valuable only when it is governed, traceable and designed to meet real world standards.

A Plan Built on Accountability and Evidence Instead of Hype

The most powerful part of the APS AI Plan is its commitment to responsible and sovereign use of AI. It focuses on the elements that matter most in environments where failure has consequences.

The plan prioritises:

• transparent and evidence based outputs

• clear accountability for AI decisions

• governance models that can be audited

• secure sovereign hosting and data protection

• capability uplift across the entire APS

• improvements in procurement and shared assessments to reduce duplication

This approach recognises that AI must be safe and reliable before it can be scaled. It sets expectations that will soon inform how government interacts with industry, including suppliers, defence partners and SMEs across the national supply chain.

How ORCA Opti Already Aligns with the APS Vision

The APS AI Plan reads like a description of the principles that ORCA Opti was built to embody. The alignment is natural and instantaneous.

1. Trust built through traceability and defensibility

ORCA Opti does not produce insights in isolation. Every action and recommendation is supported by:

• linked policies

• time stamped evidence

• mapped control structures

• human in the decision

• alignment to ISO 9001(Quality), ISO 27001 (Information), Essential Eight, DISP, PSPF, DSPF, ISO 42001 (AI) and other frameworks

This reflects the APS expectation for transparent and defensible AI supported by clear governance.

2. People remain at the centre of decision making

The APS plan highlights capability uplift and human oversight. ORCA Opti follows the same approach. Its assistant guide users, reduce cognitive load, assist with incident response, and maintain compliance in the background while human expertise remains firmly in control.

3. Tools that integrate securely rather than create fragmentation

The government’s vision calls for sovereign first AI, vendor agnostic platforms, integration with existing systems, and reuse of validated assessments. ORCA Opti already sits inside the customer’s Microsoft 365 environment (hosted in country), secures data within the tenancy, avoids platform lock in, and adapts to any recognised control framework. It is built to support reuse and shared assurance rather than duplication.

Why This Plan Matters Beyond Government

The APS tends to be the first major standard setter. When it defines expectations around AI governance and security, these expectations eventually shape:

• defence primes

• state and territory government

• essential services

• regulators

• healthcare and research institutions

• logistics and transport

• the entire supply chain, including small and medium businesses

This means that organisations of all sizes will need AI that is secure, auditable, integrated, and aligned to known standards. AI without governance will not be enough.

Australia’s AI Future Needs More Than Technology. It Needs Discipline.

The APS AI Plan signals that capability alone is not a competitive advantage. Responsible and well governed capability is what truly matters.

This is the philosophy behind ORCA Opti. Compliance, evidence and risk are not features added later. They are the foundation to the platform solution. AI is powerful, but AI combined with structure, traceability and privacy integrity is what will keep systems safe and ready for the future.

A Nation That Uses AI Wisely Will Outperform One That Uses AI Quickly

The coming decade will be shaped not by who adopts AI first but by who adopts it with quality and safety guardrails. The APS AI Plan provides a clear direction for government. ORCA Opti exists to help industry follow the same standard of disciplined, transparent and sovereign AI use.

If you would like a deeper breakdown of the plan or insight into how ORCA Opti aligns with emerging expectations, I am always happy to continue the conversation.

If you are exploring how to introduce AI safely and effectively into your operations, we would love to help. Connect with us at hello@orcaopti.ai