The Environmental Defenders Office has called for a moratorium on approvals for large data centres in Tasmania, telling a parliamentary inquiry the state’s laws have not kept up.
Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) Managing Lawyer Mae Tanner told the inquiry into AI data centres today that the moratorium should stay in place until planning and environmental laws were reformed.
She said the organisation’s free legal information service had a 250% increase in public inquiries about data centres across Australia between January and August.
“This is a matter of exceptional public interest,” Tanner said.
“Future generations will bear the impact of rushed, inadequately consulted decisions.”
The EDO wants data centres added as a distinct use class in the Tasmanian Planning Scheme. Tanner said the Firmus proposals had been assessed under the existing “utilities” and “research and development” classes, which were not designed for data centres.
The EDO also wants large data centres to be automatically referred to the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) for a full environmental impact assessment.
Tanner said proposals so far had been referred to the EPA only because of the fuel-burning capacity of their backup diesel generators. That trigger is listed in Schedule 2 of the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act.
“Unsurprisingly, because that act was made in 1994 when these problems or challenges were not in the minds of the drafters, data centres is not on that list,” she said.
The EDO suggested a threshold of 30 or 50 megawatts for automatic referral.
The EDO also wants an enforceable requirement that large data centres bring at least 100% new renewable energy before they begin operating.
EDO Solicitor Toby McGregor said the government’s draft expectations for data centres recommended proponents enter contractual arrangements for renewable energy.
He said the EDO wanted it mandated for every proponent, so it was not “incumbent on the proponent to enter those negotiations”.
Asked whether any data centre ran entirely on renewables, Tanner said: “We are not aware of any data centres that are running off renewable energy completely.”
McGregor said there were concerns that “developers will, I guess, seek to put in place AI data centres before effective, appropriate regulatory frameworks are in place.”
He said poorly planned and poorly consulted data centre developments interstate and overseas had cost developers billions of dollars.
“We say it’s in the interest of everyone, communities, the environment, the industry, that we get this, get it right and that everyone’s aligned both locally and nationally,” he said.
McGregor said proponents should also face comprehensive and ongoing reporting obligations, particularly on energy and water use.
