The Liberal senator Paul Scarr said the reporting showed there were clear dangers in an increase in the number of submissions that included hallucinated content.<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest risk is that decision-makers, whether or not they\u2019re in parliament or in business or anywhere else, make decisions based on incorrect information,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it increases with the standing of the person or entity that\u2019s making the submission and we all need to be alive to that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been put on notice. We really need to check and go the extra mile in terms of checking footnotes and sources and claims which are made in submissions.\u201d<\/p>\n Scarr was on a committee in 2023 that received a submission including fake allegations of wrongdoing by KPMG.<\/p>\n Liberal senator Paul Scarr says \u2018the danger\u2019s there\u2019 when it comes to errors in submissions. Photograph: Lukas Coch\/AAP<\/p>\n Guardian Australia reported<\/a> at the time that the consultancy firm complained to the committee, which one academic took responsibility for.<\/p>\n Scarr said that as committees must consider all submissions, \u201cyou would hope that it\u2019s evened out somewhat if there are a minority of submissions that have got these errors, but the danger\u2019s there\u201d.<\/p>\n Louise Miller-Frost, a Labor MP and chair of the social policy and legal affairs committee, which received a submission with hallucinated references, said committees were becoming more aware of the issue, but that submissions created using AI should not be discarded.<\/p>\n She said the findings of the submission with hallucinated content was not different to other evidence given to the inquiry.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if they put in something unusual or really salient then you\u2019d have to go down the rabbit hole and go, \u2018OK I need to find out more information on that particular submission and then go into the references\u2019 , and then it would be obvious that their references don\u2019t exist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think committees \u2026 and committee secretariats are a lot more aware of it now. Some of these committees are dealing with massive quantities of data coming in, which makes it a little bit difficult to check every single reference.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller-Frost also noted that AI could be helpful for members of the public who might otherwise have difficulty making submissions.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cSome of [the submissions] are from agencies and academics and government departments and they\u2019ve got lots of resources. But we also get, particularly in the social services area, some people who are individuals in the community, and they may not have the time and the capacity and availability to write what they want to write.\u201d<\/p>\n The Senate president, Sue Lines, said MPs involved in parliamentary inquiries always tested information presented to them, but said individuals behind submissions were responsible for the veracity of the content.<\/p>\n \u201cNo doubt committee practices will continue to evolve as the widespread adoption of AI continues, including responding to the likely increase in submissions through the availability of AI tools \u2013 which is beneficial in terms of participation but also has an impact on the task of digesting submissions and on resources,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cCommittees also set a clear expectation that where an inquiry participant becomes aware that any evidence they have given is misleading they have an obligation to correct it.\u201d<\/p>\n Senate advice for inquiry submissions warns that<\/a> use of AI can present risks to the quality of information and that accuracy is the responsibility of the submitter.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788392833_574_2998.jpg\")
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