Australian Government Ditches Google Cloud Over Sovereignty Concerns
The Australian government's Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has announced that it will only work with six cloud vendors that meet its sovereignty test. The test assesses five dimensions, including foreign legal reach and transparency about who runs the service day-to-day.
Google Cloud is not among the six approved providers, despite operating data centre regions in Sydney and Melbourne. However, this does not mean Google Cloud cannot sell to Australian government agencies; individual departments can still contract with any accredited provider for specific workloads.
The DTA's sovereignty test follows a broader shift in how the Commonwealth buys technology, with a focus on reducing vendor lock-in and increasing sovereign control. The federal Cloud Policy, which took effect on July 1, 2026, requires agencies to consider sovereignty as a default procurement consideration for new digital and ICT projects.