BRISBANE, Australia—Amid ongoing debate about new data centres and their impact on local neighbourhoods, Queensland LNP Premier David Crisafulli has declared his state is ready for “big ones” in regional areas.
The premier made the comments while delivering the McIlwraith Lecture hosted by the Australian Institute for Progress in Brisbane, saying that besides critical minerals, there were opportunities to drive employment in the regions via data centres.
“I understand how contentious they are, and in the [United] States, it’s become a ‘right’ versus ‘left’ issue. The Republicans are championing them, and the Democrats say it’s the worst thing ever—and the truth is, there are challenges,” Crisafulli said on Sept. 30.
“But I boil it down to this: one way or another, our data is going to be stored, and I don’t want it stored overseas. I want it here in this country, but it’s going to be on our terms.
“It’s not going to be in your backyard. It’s not going to be in built-up areas.”
A day after his comments, data centre operator Everpure released a survey suggesting Australian corporations were were not doing enough to protect data stored in overseas servers.
Meanwhile, the Liberal National Party state leader said the idea of developing small data centres in the cities was “crazy,” saying there were “no jobs in them” and that they caused angst in the community.
“What I want are the big ones, the ones that move the needle, the ones that are in rural areas where there aren’t the economic opportunities for high-paying jobs, the ones where there are training done on them, where 1,500 people will be there to construct them, and 1,300 people will be there the day after they open to drive them.”
Crisafulli pointed to newer data centre designs that could be built on low-value land and use less water.
“With reticulated schemes, the amount of water they use is akin to a large golf course—I trade that for 1,500 jobs and 1,300 ongoing.”
The premier also spoke about his decision to push back against a proposal by the federal Labor government to mandate renewable energy generation for new data centres—a stance that has led the Albanese government to back down.
“We are the only state in the National Energy Market that is a net exporter of electricity, that is a competitive advantage,” Crisafulli said.
“Why on earth would we give that up? Why would we give up a client [data centre operator] who can take electricity when we have a surplus of it, and use it to make those coal-fired plants sweat a little more and drive down the price for people?”
“So, my view is as follows: If they want to come and they want to invest in a coal-fired power plant to keep it running or expand it, their money is welcome. If they want to invest in gas and build those peaking plants we need, their money is welcome.”
The premier’s comments come just weeks after AI giant Anthropic signed its first deal in Australia to build a massive $32 billion data centre facility in Queensland’s regional Western Downs near the town of Dalby.
The facility is expected to draw power equivalent to 1.5 million Australian households. The timeline is also significant, the AI giant expects to start using the facility next year.
Data centre construction has faced scrutiny in recent federal inquiries.
One of Australia’s largest AI infrastructure operators, AirTrunk, faced questions over whether its facilities were pumping chemicals into discharged water.
“I can’t absolutely say that there’s no chemicals in that water,” said Tom McKellar, AirTrunk’s vice president of market expansion.
McKellar had earlier told the Environment and Communications References Committee that testing showed there was no PFAS—“forever chemicals”—in its Lane Cove facility in Sydney.
However, during questioning from Senator Sarah Henderson, McKellar could not immediately rule out the presence of other chemicals, needing more time to gather the evidence.
Other data centre operators have faced pressure regarding the proximity of facilities to neighbourhoods, while some councils say they are being bypassed during the approval process.
English (US) · 
Turkish (TR) · 