Australia’s
Digital Sovereignty Forum

Monday 7 December 2026
Aerial – Level 7, UTS Building 10, 235 Jones St, Ultimo
Building the capability, resilience and confidence to choose our digital futures.

From Reactive to Resilient – how might we protect, extend and promote our national interest, public wellbeing, security and infrastructure, while retaining the ability to make informed choices about our digital futures.

Join us to help paint a picture we can all run towards.

It’s time to gather and shape our digital future deliberately – strengthening our national capability while helping governments, businesses and communities understand the choices, risks and opportunities ahead.

Digital capability will increasingly determine Australia’s productivity, prosperity, security and ability to shape its own future.

We want to unleash the magic that happens when the right mix of people ​are in the same place at the same time. It will be a day of serendipitous connections and cross-fertilisation of clever, passionate people.

The 2026 Resilient by Design – Australia’s Digital Sovereignty Forum is structured around four themes, adapted from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre Digital Sovereignty Toolkit:

Governance

the policy and legal foundations that hold everything together

Infrastructure
the data, software and systems Australia relies on
Markets
the products, platforms and vendors shaping our choices
Skills
the people and capability needed to hold all of this together

These layers cut across the six priorities the Tech Policy Design Institute has identified as central to Australia’s AI and digital future – People & Planet, Productivity, Trusted Information and Institutions, Regulatory Courage, National Capability, and Global Governance.

Where can Australia play, and what can we build?

Contributors include:

Cori Stewart

Angie Abdilla

Founder & CEO, Old Ways New
Cori Stewart

David Reilly

Co-founder & CEO, Emergence Quantum
Cori Stewart

Alison Pennington

Chief Economist, McKell Institute
Scott Shaw

Scott Shaw

Crew Lead, Generative AI Platform, Commonwealth Bank
Greta Bradman

Greta Bradman

VP Agentic AI, Culture Amp
Cori Stewart

Andrew Horton

Managing Partner, The Horton Group
Marina Yue Zhang

Marina Yue Zhang

Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
Alan Hsiao

Alan Hsiao

Founder & CEO, Cognitivo

Contributors are involved from giving provocations to program guidance, input and support anywhichway.
View contributors here →

Why Attend

The 2026 Resilient by Design – Australia’s Digital Sovereignty Forum is a chance to recognise what’s already working, provoke what’s possible next, and decide, together, what we’re building toward.

We want to come together with curiosity and leave with a shared agenda of what we can do to accelerate our resilience at the level of organisations, sectors and the nation in the digital age.

Find out more

The Questions

What does it take to get from ‘we’re not ready’ to ‘we’re ready’ — and who can best help signpost and scaffold?
What would it look like for Australians to have a real say in how digital technology gets used?
If no country can be fully self-sufficient, is sovereignty about independence or about who you choose to depend on (and how you choose)?
If sovereignty means trusting the operator, not just the geography — who do we actually trust, and why?
If we had the sovereign compute and cloud capability we wanted in five years, what would Australian AI companies be able to do that they can’t today?
What can a sovereignty framework built on First Nations principles teach us about doing this well?
What capabilities does an organisation need to remain resilient, adaptable and in control in an increasingly interconnected digital world?
What would it look like for government to use its own purchasing power to build digital capability in our nation’s interest?
Imagine it’s 2031. Australia is recognised as the Asia-Pacific leader in trusted AI and digital capability. What happened in the previous five years? What strengths did we build on, and what choices made the difference?

How to Get Involved

Register to attend – and help build momentum for Australia’s digital future.

Come ready to share ideas, challenge assumptions, make connections and help work out what organisations and Australia has to do now to have informed autonomy in 2031.
Register now

Want to contribute a provocation?

We’re inviting people with a strong view on what organisations, sectors and Australia needs to do next to put their hat in the ring to share a provocation.

Imagine it’s 2031. Australia is recognised as the Asia-Pacific leader in trusted AI and digital capability. What happened in the previous five years? What strengths did we build on, and what choices made the difference?

Submit a provocation to share at the Forum

Want to support or get involved?

If you have ideas on how you or your organisation can help shape or inform the program or provide support or sponsorship.

Get in touch → digitalfutures@teamslatts.com.au

With abundant renewable resources, available land, trusted institutions, and the potential to maintain public support for large-scale infrastructure, Australia is uniquely positioned to become a leading hub for trusted compute within the democratic alliance.
Andrew Horton
With abundant renewable resources, available land, trusted institutions, and the potential to maintain public support for large-scale infrastructure, Australia is uniquely positioned to become a leading hub for trusted compute within the democratic alliance.
Andrew Horton
If Australia is to harness the potential of the digital revolution and secure its global standing, it must choose to lead rather than merely follow – leveraging its research excellence to transform its digital landscape from a fragmented collection of applications into a cohesive, sovereign platform ecosystem.
Dr Marina Zhang • Associate Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
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If Australia is to harness the potential of the digital revolution and secure its global standing, it must choose to lead rather than merely follow – leveraging its research excellence to transform its digital landscape from a fragmented collection of applications into a cohesive, sovereign platform ecosystem.
Dr Marina Zhang • Associate Professor, Australia-China Relations Institute, University of Technology Sydney
Read more
… If we want Australia to be more than a consumer of other nations’ discoveries, we must keep investing in the shared infrastructure that allows us to make our own. The next generation of Australian industries will be built in our clean rooms, supercomputing centres, fabrication facilities, imaging platforms, data commons and biosecurity laboratories, by people who know how to work across disciplines and sectors.
Dr Cathy Foley
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… If we want Australia to be more than a consumer of other nations’ discoveries, we must keep investing in the shared infrastructure that allows us to make our own. The next generation of Australian industries will be built in our clean rooms, supercomputing centres, fabrication facilities, imaging platforms, data commons and biosecurity laboratories, by people who know how to work across disciplines and sectors.
Dr Cathy Foley
Read more
Our power, our agency, our choice lies in embracing change and shaping it.
Not just adopting or accommodating AI.
Designing it, making it, building the capability right here.
And building our sovereignty – and our economic resilience as a result.
Anthony Albanese • Prime Minister of Australia
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Our power, our agency, our choice lies in embracing change and shaping it.
Not just adopting or accommodating AI.
Designing it, making it, building the capability right here.
And building our sovereignty – and our economic resilience as a result.
Anthony Albanese • Prime Minister of Australia
Read more
The Digital Sovereignty Forum acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Countries on which we gather for our events. We recognise the sovereignty, knowledge and community of First Peoples and pay our respects to the Ancestors and Elders who pave the way for future Leaders.

We walk with great reverence on the various places the Digital Sovereignty Forum team live, work and visit. Always was, always will be.

Australia's Digital Sovereignty Forum
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