David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Industry and Science (Senator Ayres) and the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Watt) to questions without notice I asked today.

I had the rare opportunity to ask the government two questions today, and my thanks to Senator Lambie for allowing me to ask a question in her absence. I want to acknowledge all the young people in the Senate today watching us through question time and as we discuss these matters.

I asked Minister Ayres about how government expectations around data centres will actually be enforced. It seems like these expectations are, at the moment, nothing more than something on a website. And the answer was as clear as mud. It seems like we're simply shifting this onto the states, somehow, and they are going to deal with this.

People are concerned about the huge energy and water use that come from the development of data centres. In the next decade alone, data centres in Sydney are expected to use more drinking water than Canberra currently uses. This is something we actually need to be planning for. We need to be thinking very clearly about it, because, for very good reason, there is very little trust in big tech. We've seen what they've done with surveillance capitalism; we've seen how they've profited off our data—how, at every turn, they've minimised their tax and they have not protected Australians. These questions need to be answered by the government. How are you actually going to put Australians first?

To my question to Minister Watt: our investment in biodiversity in this country is tragically low, any way you look at it. Figures are from 6c in every $100 in the federal budget to 0.1 per cent of the federal budget. It's not good enough. We live in such an incredible place and we're not living—we're not making decisions—like we plan to be here for a long time. And, obviously, money is not everything. But it is incredibly important when it comes to boots on the ground and to our scientists that are working at solving the huge problems: everything from invasive species to the changes in our Alpine areas and the dieback of snow gums due to climate change. We need to be backing them in and actually funding nature in this country.

Question agreed to.