SYDNEY — Australia and Canada, those middle-power nations who might together play an important role in a disrupted world order, are ideally-placed to shape the path for creative economies in the AI age.
That’s the line from APRA AMCOS and SOCAN, whose leaders on Friday, March 6 shared a joint statement on the creative industries and artificial intelligence.
The rights societies issued its message, a positive, united front, that mirrors the conversations between Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese and his counterpart Mark Carney, who was in Australia this week on his first official visit as Canada’s leader. Among the topics of discussion, the challenges facing both countries “in a deteriorating geostrategic environment,” getting business done, and planning for a future as “strategic cousins,” a comment Carney made during his address to federal parliament.
Outside of the conventional halls of power, APRA AMCOS this week hosted the CISAC board of directors meeting in Sydney, a gathering that included SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown.
“Australia and Canada are already recognized as leaders in education, innovation, critical minerals and in the strength of their democratic institutions,” reads a statement signed by SOCAN’s Brown and APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston. “We believe this moment presents a unique opportunity to add another pillar: a framework for AI development that treats cultural wealth as a sovereign asset alongside those strengths, that brings creators into genuine partnership with technology, and that the rest of the world can look to as a model.”
During Carney’s visit, a raft of fresh agreements were unveiled including a new agreement on clean energy, a biennial defense ministers’ meeting, an annual economic ministers’ meeting, and agreements to strengthen collaboration on space and emergency management, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports.
The leaders of both countries also agreed to pursue “common positions on key critical minerals issues”, with Australia joining Canada’s G7 Critical Minerals Production Alliance.
“If middle powers are to shape the rules of the AI era rather than simply inherit them,” reads the statement from SOCAN’s Brown and APRA AMCOS’ Ormston, “culture is not a footnote to that mission. It is part of the foundation. We look forward to working with both governments to build it.”
Read the joint statement in full below.
As Prime Minister Albanese welcomed Prime Minister Carney to the Australian Parliament yesterday, he said it plainly: “As two middle powers in an era of strategic competition, Australia and Canada must seek and create new ways to stand with and for each other.” Prime Minister Carney was equally direct about the stakes: that nations like ours must work together on the development of Artificial Intelligence or risk being caught “between the hyperscalers and the hegemons.” We agree on both counts, and we believe the creative economy is where that solidarity must be tested and proved.
We collectively represent almost 400,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada. The shape of that framework matters enormously. It will determine whether AI development generates broad cultural and economic returns, or whether those returns flow overwhelmingly to a small number of global technology platforms at the expense of the artists whose work made AI possible.
Middle-power nations are uniquely placed to answer this question. Australia has already demonstrated that: becoming the first country in the world to rule out a copyright exception for AI training and beginning work on a practical licensing framework instead. Canada is engaged in the same contest. Both countries understand that the choice is not between innovation and creator protection: it is a false choice, and a self-interested one, advanced by those who prefer to avoid the importance of artists and creators in the technological development of AI.
The sustainable path, and ultimately the more productive one, is a genuine partnership between the technology sector and the people who create the content that gives it value. That means consent before use, transparency about what is used, and fair remuneration that flows back to creators and the communities they belong to. It means AI development that enhances the quality and diversity of human creativity rather than cannibalising it.
APRA and SOCAN have each spent a century navigating technological change on behalf of creators, from radio to streaming, and now to AI. The licensing infrastructure exists. The expertise exists. The partnerships between our two governments create the right conditions to build the frameworks that make it work.
There is one dimension of this challenge that is uniquely shared between our two nations: the protection of Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property. Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Canada’s First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples each hold living cultural knowledge, in song, story, language and ceremony that AI systems are already harvesting without consent. This is not a niche concern. It is a test of whether the values both governments have affirmed today, respect for First Nations cultures and peoples, are reflected in the practical architecture of AI governance.
Australia and Canada are already recognized as leaders in education, innovation, critical minerals and in the strength of their democratic institutions. We believe this moment presents a unique opportunity to add another pillar: a framework for AI development that treats cultural wealth as a sovereign asset alongside those strengths, that brings creators into genuine partnership with technology, and that the rest of the world can look to as a model.
If middle powers are to shape the rules of the AI era rather than simply inherit them, culture is not a footnote to that mission. It is part of the foundation. We look forward to working with both governments to build it.
Dean Ormston
Chief Executive Officer, APRA AMCOS
Jennifer Brown
Chief Executive Officer, SOCAN
