The SA Government has shown it wants to lead on AI. We want to see that same leadership on PBT.

On Monday 10 August 2026  the Premier Peter Malinauskas announced a $3 million Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence.

AI crosses state borders. Much of its regulation sits federally. The Commonwealth already has a National AI Plan, an Australian AI Safety Institute and substantial policy and regulatory work underway.

Yet the Premier has determined the issue warrants State leadership and a Royal Commission, the highest level of public inquiry available to the State.

That is a significant commitment, particularly when substantial AI policy work is already underway nationally and expertise exists across government, regulators and specialist agencies to progress it.

And that is what makes the contrast with proton beam therapy (PBT) so striking.

Australia has already done much of the work to establish the need and determine how proton therapy should fit into our cancer system. Cancer Australia developed a national proton therapy strategy following an expert review of the evidence. The South Australian Auditor-General has examined the Adelaide project in detail. Governments have already invested significant public money, the State retains ongoing financial commitments and risk, and the Australian Bragg Centre stands in Adelaide.

We are asking for that same sense of urgency and leadership for proton therapy.

We accept that South Australia should not carry the cost alone. Proton therapy would be a national service and requires a Commonwealth partnership. But requiring Commonwealth partnership is very different from waiting for the Commonwealth to solve it.

This isn't about comparing $3 million with the very different investment required to complete the Australian Bragg Centre.

It is about priority.

If the South Australian Government is prepared to lead on an issue as national and international as artificial intelligence, it can also lead the partnership needed to deliver a project in which South Australia and the Commonwealth have already invested.

More than 30,000 Australians are asking our governments to find that way forward.

The evidence is there. The need is established. The infrastructure is here. Now let's finish what we started.

Sign and share our petition: https://www.change.org/AustralianProtonTherapyNow

Sources:
• ABC News, 10 August 2026 – SA Royal Commission into Artificial Intelligence
• Australian Government – National AI Plan & Australian AI Safety Institute (Dec 2025)
• Cancer Australia – Strategy for Proton Beam Therapy for cancer patients in Australia (2023)
• Auditor-General’s Department SA – Proton Therapy Project: SA Government Context and Insights (2025).