PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (18:23): There is enormous economic potential across the Northern Territory, and, in this place, I've spoken often about Territory gold, the best solar radiation in the world. The Territory is at the forefront of Australia's energy transition. Projects like SunCable and Energy North are tapping into the incredible potential of solar energy to power local industry and to meet the energy needs of our neighbours into the future as well.

Big IT players like Amazon, Google and Microsoft are very interested in Territory gold to power their datacentre activities in AI and the cloud. This demand taps into the geographical and institutional stability of Australia and our membership of the Five Eyes security arrangement, along with access to the required telecommunications and other infrastructure.

But these investments must benefit the community and deliver for our national interest. The PM's new Australian standards for AI data centres will make it clear: if you want to build here, you have to make our economy and society stronger. The rules are clear.

Add to our energy supply; don't drain it. Strengthen the grid; don't weaken it. Use water responsibly and offset your impact.

Hire and train Australians; contribute to our science and research; be part of the community, not a stranger behind a barbed wire fence. These expectations put the needs of the Australian people first—where they should be—ensuring our communities benefit directly through jobs, investment in skills and innovation, while strongly supporting Australia's clean energy transition and safeguarding our long-term water security, something I spoke about in this place just this morning.

Our federal government will work with the states and territories and market participants to implement the expectations, particularly through the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council. Data centres have enormous potential to expand new renewable investment, but it's important we work together across jurisdictions and with industry to get the investment settings right so that we can continue to keep our systems secure and energy prices low for all consumers.

However, as Minister Bowen stated, the Commonwealth will not be standing by and letting a race to the bottom of states and territories falling over themselves to attract data centres at the cost to household bills. At the national cabinet meeting earlier this month, it was agreed that state—and territory, in our case—owned power can be used if the Commonwealth, by the Australian Energy Regulator, is satisfied it won't push up bills or weaken reliability.

If a jurisdiction believes that they have state-owned energy that is cheaper than renewable energy, they'll be able to make that case to the Commonwealth for consideration by the energy regulator on a case-by-case basis. But the regulator will have to be convinced that it would put downward pressure on bills and be cheaper than renewables. That's a very high bar indeed, but we've set it high to ensure that household bills don't go up and it doesn't make it harder for other industries to do business.

However, given that high bar has been put into position, the Northern Territory chief minister, when asked just last week about potential savings on power bills from Beetaloo fracked gas, said, 'I would love to say yes. Unfortunately, that's not going to be the case.' So obviously for the Northern Territory, and I gather for some other jurisdictions as well, there'll be a lot more work to do to make that case.

Renewables will be king because renewables are cheaper. Since coming to government, we've acted to help with power bill relief, gas price caps and investing in cheap renewables, all of which those opposite the coalition opposed. After a decade of delay, dysfunction and denial under those opposite, under the coalition, our government is now getting on with the job of rebuilding Australia's energy grid with the lowest-cost form of energy, renewable energy.

We're acting to replace ageing, expensive power with cheap, reliable energy which takes advantage of our abundant resources, the sun and the wind, and that is the sensible and commonsense way forward for our nation.