This webinar is for ALGIM Council / CCO members only.
AI tools have rapidly become part of how many people work. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Gemini and others are widely available, capable, and easy to access. For councils, this presents a challenge that does not have an easy answer: how do we govern AI use in a way that protects the personal information of residents, contractors, employees and customers and enables the innovation and extensive productivity gains that AI clearly offers.
For councils that have blocked access at the firewall, the assumption is often that the risk is contained. However, we know this does not eliminate the risk; rather, it can push it underground into “Shadow AI”. Staff may still use AI tools on personal devices and phones or via free browser tools or other software that can be hard to detect and thus beyond IT's visibility or control.
For councils that have opened access to such tools under a policy framework, the challenge is the inverse: policy and training alone rely on every staff member making the right call, every time, without exception.
This webinar is built around the practitioner experience of councils grappling with this dilemma. The session draws on a co-design pilot of Deidentified, an AI Privacy Gateway built specifically for council workflows, that ran from November 2025 to March 2026 across three Australian councils in partnership with ctrl:cyber (formerly elevenM): Whitehorse City Council, Mornington Peninsula Shire and Moorabool Shire.
Council teams will share what they tried, what worked, and what did not, in their own words. The session uses a concept anyone who has worked in workplace safety will recognise: the hierarchy of control. The least effective safeguards sit at the bottom, training and policy, behaviours that staff are expected to follow every time without exception. The most effective sit at the top, engineering and technical controls that do not rely on individuals to make the right call under pressure. Most councils and organisations are presently operating near the bottom of that hierarchy when it comes to AI, exposing themselves to considerable risk.
The NZ Privacy Act 2020 and Information Privacy Principle 5 require agencies to put in place reasonable security safeguards to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access and unauthorised disclosure. Those safeguards need to incorporate both organisational measures and technical measures to be truly effective.
The February 2026 incident in which Department of Corrections staff used Microsoft Copilot Chat to draft reports in breach of the department's policy shows why policy-only controls fail.
The session will provide insight for you to assess where your council sits on the hierarchy of control today, and what good technical and organisational safeguards look like in practice.
About the Presenters:
Tim Bearup
Co-Founder and CEO
Deidentified
With nearly two decades of experience spanning local government leadership, community services and emerging technology, including senior roles at Frankston City Council and Kingston City Council (Australia), Tim brings a rare combination of deep public sector understanding and technical innovation to the challenge of AI privacy.
He co-founded Deidentified, an AI Privacy Gateway purpose-built to help local governments embrace AI without compromising citizen privacy.
Tim was appointed to the MAVLab AI Taskforce in 2025 to contribute to a roadmap for AI adoption across Victorian local governments. His focus is on making privacy protection practical, embedded and scalable so councils can move forward with AI confidently.
Justin Daly
Emerging Technologies Lead
Mornington Peninsula Council
Justin leads emerging technology strategy and implementation at Mornington Peninsula Shire, where he has built the council's AI and emerging tech capability from the ground up, establishing governance frameworks, an active AI Pioneer Network, and operational AI tools across the organisation. With a background in digital transformation at Frankston City Council, he brings practical experience in bridging the gap between technical capability and organisational reality.
Justin was appointed to the MAVLab AI Taskforce in 2025 to contribute to a roadmap for AI adoption across Victorian local governments. His focus is on making AI work in bounded, well-governed, human-in-the-loop contexts that deliver real outcomes for councils and communities.
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