Compliance and Data Residency for Australia’s Sovereign AI Factory
September 28, 2025•7 min read
Sovereign AI deployments must demonstrate compliance by design. This guide outlines practical controls to align an AI factory with APRA CPS 234, IRAP assessment pathways, and Australia’s Privacy Act—without constraining developer velocity.
Core Controls
- Data residency: all storage, processing, and backups remain in Australia
- Access governance: role‑based access with just‑in‑time elevation and full audit
- Model governance: dataset lineage, evaluation artefacts, and deployment approvals
- Incident readiness: playbooks for prompt disabling, model rollback, and tenant isolation
Evidence Pack
Maintain living documentation that maps controls to standards and proves effectiveness:
- System Security Plan, data flow diagrams, model cards, test results
- Change records, pen‑test findings, and remediation logs
- Third‑party assessments and supplier attestations
Key Takeaways
- Design residency and least‑privilege controls into the platform, not the project
- Link every model release to policy, evaluation and rollback procedures
- Treat audits as continuous—automate evidence generation where possible