Schedule 3, Part 2
When a computer program makes the decision
From 27 August 2026 the CEO may authorise a computer program to take administrative action, including a decision that involves discretion or judgement, provided a standard operating procedure instrument is made and the person is told the decision was made by a program.
What does the provision require?
New section 59B allows the CEO to arrange for computer programs to take administrative action under specified provisions. The listed provisions are sections 33, 45, 45A and 45C, and the Minister may specify more by instrument, including provisions of the rules and of instruments made under the 2024 amending Act. Administrative action includes making or refusing a decision, exercising a power, performing a function or duty, and giving a related notice. It expressly includes action that involves exercising a discretion, making an evaluative judgement or forming a state of mind.
Action taken by the program is treated as action taken by the CEO. The CEO may substitute a different action where the program's action was not correct or preferable, and may backdate the substitution to the day of the program's action but no earlier. Where a notice of the action is required, it must tell the person that a computer program took it. The CEO must publish a statement of the provisions covered, must include the kinds of substituted actions and the kinds of incorrect program actions in the annual report, and must make a standard operating procedure instrument for any evaluative determination. The proposed instrument must be published at least 7 days before it is made. The CEO cannot delegate these powers.
Why does it matter to an insurer or a provider?
Automated decisions produce a decision record that looks like a decision but has no human author, and the notice must say so. For an insurer reviewing a coverage or recovery decision, that changes what a review can attack: the program's action is the CEO's action, so the ordinary review path applies, but the reasoning may sit in a standard operating procedure instrument rather than in a case note. The 7 day publication rule gives a window to read the rule the program applies.
What did the amendment change?
The Act provides express authority for automated administrative action, including for evaluative decisions, which the Act previously did not address. It adds the notice requirement, the publication and annual reporting duties, the standard operating procedure instrument and the no delegation rule.
Suggested evidence
These are the publisher's control suggestions, not statutory requirements. The provision's own requirement is above; an auditor or regulator decides what is sufficient.
- The notice, and whether it states that a computer program took the action
- The published statement of the provisions the CEO has automated
- The standard operating procedure instrument that governs an evaluative determination
- Any substituted action and the day it takes effect
- The annual report entry for the period
What should be done before the date?
- Check whether a decision in the file was made by a program and whether the notice said so
- Read the published statement and the standard operating procedure instrument before challenging a decision
- Record the substituted action route where the program outcome is wrong
What the text does not say
The text does not say how many decisions may be automated or what testing is required. It does not give a person a right to a human decision. It does not define correct or preferable, which is the threshold for a substitution.
Where this sits
sections 59B to 59E, inserted by item 11 in Schedule 3, Part 2, Automation of administrative action (items 10 to 13). Read the official text at https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2026A00066/latest/text. The record was read on 21 October 2026.
Not legal advice; does not certify. This page is a reading of the provision in our own words, not a reproduction of it, and not advice on your own facts.