Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Pocock, it certainly is not. When I announced earlier this year the expectations for data centres I was very clear that that set of expectations that we had would need to be operationalised through the states in terms of planning approvals. We have, in the government, some of this work being conducted by my very able colleague from the House of Representatives. Assistant Minister Charlton has been engaging directly with data centre developers to make sure that they understand that what we require from them is additional electricity generation and transmission investment. Just like we want to see in big industrial electricity investments—those investments underwrite, at scale, additional generation to put downward pressure on prices, not just for their businesses but also for all Australian businesses.

You'll have seen the investment that the government made, along with Minister Crisafulli and the Queensland government, in the Boyne aluminium smelter. A billion dollars from the Commonwealth government, a billion dollars from the Queensland government and $7½ billion from Rio Tinto is being invested in new renewable electricity generation for Queensland. That is a slam dunk for Queensland. It means more generation, more transmission, lower prices and industrial jobs. I want to see—and I'm glad that my colleagues in the state government's energy ministers are prepared to operationalise those principles as they do their important work in the states—