Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to debate the future of artificial intelligence data centres in Australia and in particular what role the federal government should play as the world scales up investment in this critical digital infrastructure.

In speaking on this, I'd particularly like to acknowledge Minister Ayres and the assistant minister, the member for Parramatta, for their mountain of work in this space juggling the real opportunities of this digital revolution but also the real and genuine concerns of local communities just like mine. As a former mayor and someone who has always been adjacent to planning processes, I can tell you that the construction of data centres in local communities is overwhelmingly a state issue. Applications are made through various planning systems on industrial land often zoned by state and local governments and assessed and determined at either the state or local level. Where those local and state governments have not used the planning system to prohibit or regulate their construction, they are essentially permissible.

For that reason, it would have been very easy for this federal government to wash their hands of responsibility here, to simply say: 'You know what? This is a state issue, a planning issue, and not our problem.' But this government has not chosen that path. In fact, much of the urgent action that the member for Warringah is calling for in her MPI is already underway by this federal Labor government. In December last year, the government announced our national AI plan. The plan has three goals: to capture the opportunities, to share the benefits and to keep Australians safe. One of the earliest priorities of that plan was developing clear data centre expectations, which were released only a few months ago.

Over the last two years, data centres have become one of the most contested pieces of economic infrastructure globally. Advocates call them the factories of a new age and a great tool for productivity. Critics call them giant sheds full of computers that consume electricity and water and create few jobs. They say that we risk the same mistakes that we made in resources. Both these views contain truths, and our job as a government is to assess both of these views openly with honesty and make decisions in the national interest. The AI economy is arriving whether we are ready or not. That much is settled. What is not settled is the federal government's place in it. The position of this government is that it is far better to set the terms of a boom at the outset than to fix the consequences a decade later, which is why we have released five key expectations. I'll focus on a few.

Labor expects that data centres must bring their own new renewable energy supply to offset their demand, so they are not drawing down power that should go to households and businesses. That's important. Labor expects that data centres must pay their full share of network infrastructure costs, so those burdens are not passed on to consumers. And Labor expects that data centres should use innovative, efficient and sustainable solutions to minimise fresh water use. These expectations have been backed by the Water Services Association of Australia, the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. Engagements from the states, who control many of these levers, has been positive to date and is ongoing.

Labor also expects global operators to make their computing power available to Australian startups and to partner with Australian researchers so that the benefits are to Australian businesses. This matters, because it goes to the question underneath the entire debate. We can be a country that merely consumes intelligence built elsewhere, or we can be a country that helps build it, that owns the infrastructure and that trains the people that grow our local economy.

In Lane Cove West, residents are writing to me about the proposed data centre at Mars Road. They have genuine concerns about the impact of this data centre on their community. Their local concerns are the frontline indicators of whether our state planning systems can manage this boom, and they are exactly the types of examples as to why the federal government should and has stepped in. We cannot allow a 'build first, ask questions later' approach. Energy security, water sustainability and community impact need to align with our national interests and our community values. The Albanese Labor government will keep working across this parliament, the states and territories to get this right.

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