MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (15:42): I'm pleased to support this matter of public importance regarding AI data centres and fully agree with demands for developers to fund the mitigation of their projects' harms. Thirsty for water and hungry for power—that's how the new AI data centres springing up across Australia are being described, and for good reason. Big tech companies are taking advantage of Australia's resources, imposing their damaging data centres on our communities and consolidating their control of our personal data and our economy.

While the government seems okay with Australian land being covered in AI data centres, everyday people are rightly asking serious questions: Why are these data centres being forced on us? What risks do they pose, and what safeguards are actually in place? People want answers and proper regulation of this industry.

Australia is already No. 8 in the world for the total number of operational and proposed data centres. We were behind only the USA for new proposals in 2024, with new projects proposed every week. One site, just 30 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, would occupy 350 hectares.

That's larger than many suburbs. Another 52-hectare site in Western Sydney would be Australia's single largest energy consumer. And it's the energy consumption of these sites that is so alarming.

Data centres will account for more than 10 per cent of Australia's energy consumption within a decade, jeopardising our energy transition. They're already boosting fossil fuel demand, absorbing half of one year's total rooftop solar growth. Without proper safeguards, data centres are going to drive up retail power prices, increase climate pollution and use up our scarce water.

You might have seen the advocates of these data centres saying Australia was the perfect host due to its renewable energy potential. Note that key word: 'potential'. Isn't this an amazing change of heart!

Big business now wants renewables when it suits them. They don't care about the climate or the fires and floods that we suffer each year. No, American executives only want renewables when it serves their business interests.

I don't support these data centres and certainly not while the regulation is so poor. Like many Australians, I'm completely at a loss regarding what benefits they would actually bring to Australians. At the very least, the government must force companies to contribute renewable energy to the grid, not compete with households for energy during a fuel crisis.

There are several other major problems with AI data centres, including their use of otherwise productive agricultural and industrial land, their environmental degradation and water consumption, their noise pollution in close proximity to residential areas and the job cuts they actually cause. So what's the government doing about them, you may ask? They're welcoming them with open arms, signing deals with Amazon, Anthropic and Microsoft in recent weeks.

We are repeating the very same mistakes we made during the resources boom. Big companies set up shop here, we failed to tax them properly and we watched their profits sail away overseas, leaving behind a wrecked environment and no economic benefit. Is that the future we really want?

Is that the best the government can do—our precious resources extracted and big tech companies making huge profits? All the government has to offer is a set of non-binding expectations for AI companies. Rather than imposing legal regulations on their activities, Labor's acting nicely and hoping for the best.

Is it cynical of me not to trust these companies to do the right thing in Australia? We've seen this story before with the tobacco, gambling and fossil fuel industries. Big corporations use donors and lobbyists to influence government policy.

The government is either being recklessly slow to regulate AI companies or it is doing their bidding, and I do not know which is worse. The good news is that there is hope. Communities are sounding the alarm, rallying together and standing up against these dangerous megaprojects.

In May, one development in Perth faced overwhelming opposition due to impacts on schools, residences and cultural heritage sites. The Greens have established a Senate inquiry into these data centres, and we will call on the government to pass a comprehensive AI bill. The government should consider a moratorium on new data centres until proper regulations have been enshrined into law.