The approval of a 288-megawatt AI data centre at Bell Bay has sparked a political scrap between the Tasmanian Liberals and One Nation in a rare public clash between the two ‘conservative’ parties.
George Town Council voted six to one on Tuesday to approve the Firmus Technologies facility, drawing immediate reaction across the political spectrum.
The Liberals took to social media to highlight what they saw as hypocrisy in One Nation’s opposition to the project, comparing the party to “the climate activist who flies their private jet from conference to conference demanding other people cut their emissions.”
“Can’t be against data centres, then use them to power your party,” the post read, pointing to One Nation’s use of AI-generated content on its own social media channels.
Lee Hanson, One Nation’s Tasmanian spokesperson and daughter of party leader Pauline Hanson, dismissed the jab as “a very childish move”.
“I would hope that with One Nation now entering as an option for people to vote for here in Tasmania, that they would want another conservative party to back them up with true conservative power and voting capability on the floor of parliament,” she told Pulse.
“But instead, they’re playing childish games and want to come at One Nation.”
Hanson said One Nation was not opposed to data centres outright but wanted them assessed on a case-by-case basis.
The clash comes as Liberal strategist Brad Stansfield urged his party to stop “playing footsie” with One Nation entirely.
Speaking on the Poll Position podcast last week, Stansfield pointed to polling showing 81% of One Nation voters already preference the Liberals over Labor without any deal in place.
“It makes no sense to me on any level, political, mathematical, moral, that the Libs should be playing footsie on One Nation,” he said.
Local Government Minister Kerry Vincent this morning said the data centre sat firmly within council’s planning authority and he had no intention of declaring it a project of state significance.
Vincent said the project “does not tick all the boxes” to be escalated to state level, though he did not detail which criteria it failed to meet.
He welcomed the federal government’s involvement in examining AI data centres on a national level, saying the technology was developing quickly and needed broad oversight.
