Labor is calling for no new data centres or agreements in Tasmania until stronger safeguards are in place, saying Tasmanians are “set to be ripped off” under the state government’s new policy.
The government released its final statement of expectations for data centres and artificial intelligence infrastructure on Friday.
It requires developers of facilities larger than 20 megawatts to pay at least $3,000 a year per megawatt into a local community benefit fund.
Speaking today, Labor’s Josh Willie said Premier Jeremy Rockliff had “rolled out the red carpet for data centre developers”.
“Under his new data centre policy, data centres can switch on without bringing new generation power locked in,” he said.
“There is no limit to the power and water that they can use and it’s all rested on secret deals behind closed doors.”
Willie said developers should bring new generation with them and should not put power and water bills at risk. He said Labor would release its own expectations before the end of the year.
On the community fund, he said developers were “set to make billions of dollars out of Tasmania’s power and water” while the state would receive “very little in return”.
He also criticised the plan for proponents to administer their own funds.
In response, Rockliff today said Labor have “not got a backbone when it comes to attracting investment and jobs to Tasmania”.
“What we announced on Friday was a very clear set of expectations and requirements,” he said.
The premier said developers who would not meet those requirements should “look elsewhere”.
Asked about data centres switching on before new generation was in place, Rockliff said that would be “a transition” in energy generation as Tasmania switches on Marinus Link.
He said the community fund was “significant”, with a 100-megawatt data centre paying around $300,000 a year to its local community.
Rockliff also said Friday’s global Microsoft outage showed local data centres were a matter of “sovereign capability” in a world of cloud-dependent infrastucture.
Under the policy, developers must report their energy and water use every quarter and the requirements will be reviewed after six months.
Willie said Labor would pursue the issue when parliament sits next week.
