Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s proposed national environmental and energy controls for the country’s A$150 billion data centre pipeline hit their first obstacle on Tuesday, when two jurisdictions declined to back them. Federal, state and territory energy ministers met virtually to discuss the plan, and Queensland and the Northern Territory opposed most of the measures, including the idea of a national rulebook at all.
The structural problem is that the policy requires unanimity. Every state and territory must support the federal framework for it to proceed, which gives any single jurisdiction an effective veto.
What the rules would require
New data centres would have to add at least as much electricity generation to the grid as they consume, a requirement Albanese set out in a policy speech earlier in July. He described bringing these issues into a single national framework as a global first.
Operators would also be expected to build renewable generation, minimise water use, maximise energy efficiency, and fund any additional water infrastructure they need. Albanese offered few details on how any of it would work in practice.
