ADJOURNMENT
Mr WATTS (Gellibrand) (16:33): There are plenty of Australians who hate the idea of data centres being built in Australia at the moment. For many people, they are the physical embodiment of everything that they're worried about with the arrival of AI. Others are worried about the local impacts of a specific data centre that's being built or proposed for the community that they live in.
The development of AI and the rollout of the data centres to support it is a big change. It's happening around the world, and it's natural for people to feel anxiety about it. But, while the world is changing, we can't afford to hide under the bed.
We can't just hit the stop button and hope for the best as the world moves on around us. We need to take control and shape these changes in Australia's interests, to take control so that Australia can benefit from the upside of AI while protecting our community from the potential downsides. That's why, earlier this year, our government announced a set of expectations for large AI data centres and why the Prime Minister has announced that we will be delivering a set of binding Australian standards for AI.
As the Prime Minister said, 'This is about Australia shaping the future, rather than letting the future shape us.' If we get this right, Australia has everything it needs for Australians to realise the benefits of AI: the smartest minds, the biggest renewable energy opportunities, proximity to Asia and a predictable and reliable legal system buttressed by a robust democracy.
Australia is home to some of the world's best healthcare researchers, and access to AI and computing power in Australian data centres can help them make life-saving medical breakthroughs. AI and Australian computing power can enable cutting-edge scientific research on some of the most complex challenges we face. Australia's first university led AI supercomputer, MAVERIC, from Monash University, sits in the CDC data centre in my electorate in Melbourne's west.
Australian scientists are using it for research on cancer, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, and new medicine discovery, as well as enhanced skin cancer detection, simulation of star and planet formation and analysis of Antarctic imagery for environmental modelling. AI and Australian computing is also vital to ensuring that Australia's defence forces and security agencies are able to keep up with the rapidly evolving and increasing challenges they're confronting to keep us safe.
Australian standards for AI will ensure that all Australians are able to benefit from these opportunities while being protected from the potential harms. Australian standards for AI will set clear rules for the construction of data centres, including where they're built and the power and water they use. They will include a legal obligation for the next generation of large-scale data centres to underwrite new power supply.
They'll be required to cover their full share of grid connections so no costs are passed on to homes or businesses. We'll create an obligation for these data centres to build new renewable energy generation and to put at least as much energy into our grid as they take out of it, and we'll require data centres to minimise their water use and pay for any additional water infrastructure required.
Many current and proposed data centres across Australia already meet these requirements. I know this from my own experience of the data centres in my electorate, in Truganina, Laverton and Brooklyn. I've followed the construction and operation of these data centres closely, and a number of them have now been operating for years.
I can't recall receiving a single complaint about them since they started operation, and I'm certain that I've received more complaints about the abattoirs, chemical manufacturers and trucking and shipping container parks that operate in the surrounding industrial areas. These data centres create less smell, less dust and less traffic than the existing industrial land uses in this area, and they support good jobs in our community.
Nearly 4,000 jobs have been created in the construction of the Australian owned and operated CDC Laverton data centre. I've spoken to the workers and unions on site, and I know they're good jobs with good conditions. Once it's finished, it'll support 1,750 ongoing roles in our community—jobs for locals who don't have to drive to the CBD to do them.
Best practice data centres, like the CDC data centres in Brooklyn and Laverton, utilise an advanced liquid cooling system to maximise their water efficiency. They use a single volume of water which is continuously recirculated. That means the Brooklyn and Laverton data centres don't use any water for cooling.
They're some of the most water efficient data centres in Australia and New Zealand. The result of innovations like this is that Australian data centres account for just 0.04 per cent of Australia's total water use. Public swimming pools use six times more; golf courses use 10 times more.
Last financial year, Australian data centres consumed 3.9 terawatt hours of electricity, around two per cent of Australia's national energy market consumption. They've supported 1.5 terawatt hours of renewable energy generation per year and have invested $3.1 billion in grid infrastructure, and they'll invest a further $7.2 billion in grid infrastructure by 2030.
Done right, data centre rollouts can help fund our renewable energy transition, bring down costs for consumers and improve the reliability of our grid, but only if we take control of our future instead of hiding under the bed. We're not America. We want to manage AI and data centres the Australian way.
That's what the Albanese government is doing.