Governance Templates¶

Q: What AI governance templates are available from SafeAI Aus?

We provide practical, Australia-focused templates including an AI Readiness Checklist, AI Change Management guide, AI Implementation Roadmap, AI Use Policy, AI Risk Assessment, AI Risk Register, AI Industry-Specific Risks, AI Incident Report, AI Vendor Evaluation Checklist, AI Project Register, and AI Assurance framework to help Australian businesses implement safe AI governance end-to-end.

Q: Are the templates free to use and adapt?

Yes. Templates are licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0. You may copy, adapt, and use them commercially with attribution to SafeAI Aus (safeaiaus.org).

Q: How should I attribute SafeAI Aus when I reuse a template?

Include a short notice such as: "Source: SafeAI Aus (safeaiaus.org), licensed CC BY 4.0." For PDFs or docs, place it in the header or footer; for web pages, add it near the template text.

Q: Do these templates meet Australian regulatory expectations?

They are designed to align with widely used frameworks and Australian context. Organisations should tailor them to their size, sector, and risk profile, and confirm legal obligations for privacy, safety, and industry rules.

Q: How do I get started with the templates?

Start with the AI Readiness Checklist to assess your organisation's preparedness. Then implement the AI Use Policy and AI Risk Assessment. Use the AI Change Management guide and AI Implementation Roadmap when planning your first project, and the AI Vendor Evaluation Checklist before procuring tools. Add the Risk Register, Incident Report, and Project Register for ongoing governance and learning.

Purpose: Practical, ready-to-use templates for safe AI adoption in Australian organisations Audience: Leadership, governance, compliance and technical teams | Status: Free & open-source

Practical, open-source templates to help Australian businesses implement safe, responsible and effective AI.

These documents are designed as a baseline AI governance toolkit: they provide a set of lightweight, practical policies and forms that can be adapted to your organisation's context.

Standards Alignment

Together, these templates support compliance with the Voluntary AI Safety Standard (VAISS) - 10 Guardrails and align with international frameworks:

ISO/IEC 42001:2023 Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS)
NIST AI Risk Management Framework 1.0
Australian Government's Voluntary AI Safety Standard

Why Use These Templates?

✅ Consistency — A common set of documents reduces gaps and overlaps across projects
✅ Risk reduction — Guardrail alignment ensures that risks (data, security, accountability, bias) are addressed
✅ Efficiency — SMEs and larger organisations alike can use these without building frameworks from scratch
✅ Transparency — Provides evidence of responsible AI practices to customers, partners and regulators

Current Templates¶

Getting Started¶

AI Readiness Checklist

Assesses your organisation's readiness to adopt AI safely. Covers governance, technical capability, risk management and stakeholder engagement.

Time: 30-60 minutes
Format: Self-assessment checklist
Supports: Guardrails 2 (Accountability), 3 (Risk Assessment), 9 (Governance)

Implementation Guides¶

AI Change Management

Comprehensive guide to managing the organisational and cultural changes that come with AI adoption. Covers stakeholder engagement, communication, workforce planning and resistance management.

Time: 2-4 weeks to implement
Format: Step-by-step guide + templates
Supports: Guardrails 1 (Transparency), 2 (Accountability), 8 (Human Oversight)

AI Implementation Roadmap

Step-by-step guide to planning and executing AI projects from pilot to production deployment. Includes pilot sizing, success criteria, scaling decisions and ongoing monitoring.

Time: 3-6 month implementation timeline
Format: Phased roadmap + decision framework
Supports: Guardrails 2 (Accountability), 3 (Risk Assessment), 9 (Governance), 10 (Lifecycle Management)

Risk Management & Assurance¶

AI Risk Assessment Checklist

Structured way to evaluate risks before adoption.

Time: 1-2 hours per system
Format: Risk evaluation matrix
Supports: Guardrails 3 (Risk Assessment), 6 (Security)

AI Risk Register

Comprehensive register for identifying, assessing and managing AI-related risks. Integrates with broader GRC processes.

Time: 30 mins per risk entry
Format: Living document / database
Supports: Guardrail 3 (Risk Assessment)

AI Industry-Specific Risks

Provides context-specific AI risk examples for ten major Australian industries to help organisations identify relevant risks for their risk register.

Time: 15-30 minutes to review
Format: Reference guide by industry
Supports: Guardrail 3 (Risk Assessment)

AI Assurance – Transparency, Auditing & Reporting

Framework for demonstrating responsible AI practices through transparency, independent audits and structured reporting.

Time: Ongoing reporting cadence
Format: Reporting framework + templates
Supports: Guardrails 1 (Transparency), 3 (Risk Assessment), 5 (Incident Response), 10 (Lifecycle Management)

Policies & Forms¶

AI Use Policy

Defines how AI can and cannot be used in your organisation.

Time: 2-4 hours to customise
Format: Policy document template
Supports: Guardrails 1 (Transparency), 2 (Accountability)

AI Project Register

Maintains a central record of all AI initiatives.

Time: 15 mins per project entry
Format: Register / tracking sheet
Supports: Guardrails 9 (Governance), 10 (Lifecycle Management)

AI Vendor Evaluation Checklist

Comprehensive framework for evaluating AI vendors including Build vs Buy guidance, critical red flags and structured evaluation across compliance, security, data governance, and Australian context.

Time: 2-4 hours per vendor
Format: Evaluation matrix + decision framework
Supports: Guardrails 3 (Risk Assessment), 4 (Data Governance), 7 (Supply Chain), 1 (Transparency)

AI Incident Report Form

Mechanism to capture, respond and learn from AI-related issues.

Time: 15-30 mins per incident
Format: Incident report form
Supports: Guardrail 5 (Incident Response)

Coming Soon¶

Roadmap

Data Management & Quality Checklist To ensure data used in AI systems is high-quality, traceable and bias-tested (Guardrail 4).

Human Oversight Plan Defines when and how human decision-making is required, including escalation paths (Guardrails 2 and 8).

AI Model Monitoring Log Template for tracking performance, fairness, drift and retraining across deployed models (Guardrail 10).

Guardrail-to-Template Mapping¶

Guardrail	Focus Area	Covered By Templates
1. Transparency	Clear information on AI use	AI Use Policy, AI Change Management, AI Vendor Evaluation, AI Assurance
2. Accountability	Assigning responsibility	AI Use Policy, AI Readiness Checklist, AI Change Management, AI Implementation Roadmap, Human Oversight Plan (coming)
3. Risk Assessment	Evaluating risks before use	AI Risk Assessment, AI Risk Register, AI Industry Risks, AI Readiness Checklist, AI Implementation Roadmap, AI Vendor Evaluation
4. Data Governance	Data quality, bias, provenance	AI Vendor Evaluation, Data Management Checklist (coming)
5. Incident Response	Detecting and reporting issues	AI Incident Report Form, AI Assurance
6. Security	Cyber and system safeguards	AI Risk Assessment
7. Supply Chain	Vendor and third-party risk	AI Vendor Evaluation
8. Human Oversight	Human-in-the-loop checks	AI Change Management, Human Oversight Plan (coming)
9. Governance	Strategic alignment, leadership	AI Project Register, AI Readiness Checklist, AI Implementation Roadmap
10. Lifecycle	Monitoring, improvement, decommissioning	AI Project Register, AI Implementation Roadmap, AI Assurance, Model Monitoring Log (coming)

How to Use These Templates¶

Implementation Best Practices

Adapt locally — These are starting points. Tailor them to your organisation's size, industry and regulatory obligations.

Integrate — Templates should sit within existing governance, risk and compliance processes (e.g. risk registers, change management).

Iterate — AI is fast-moving. Review and update these documents regularly as your AI maturity grows.

Common questions:

Are these templates legally binding?

No. These are guidance templates to help you establish your own policies. You should adapt them to your context and may wish to seek legal or compliance advice before formal adoption.

Do I need all templates?

Start with the Readiness Checklist, Use Policy, and Risk Assessment. Add others as your AI program matures.

How do I know which template to use first?

Follow the "Getting Started" implementation path above, or use the Readiness Checklist to identify your specific needs.

Licence & Disclaimer

Licence: All templates are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You are free to use, adapt and share them with attribution to SafeAI-Aus (safeaiaus.org).

Disclaimer: These templates provide best practice guidance for Australian organisations. SafeAI-Aus has exercised care in preparation but does not guarantee accuracy, reliability, or completeness. Organisations should adapt to their specific context and may wish to seek advice from legal, governance, or compliance professionals before formal adoption.