Albanese to seek state cooperation on data centres but faces fight with Queensland

Anthony Albanese will outline to national cabinet on Wednesday proposed national legislation for conditions and guardrails around data centres – but faces a fight with Queensland.

The legislation covers conditions on sources of energy and water and the locations of centres.

It will also set conditions for AI model training in relation to copyright, security, safety and skills development.

Among the minimum obligations the commonwealth will impose are that centres: must not place upwards pressure on energy prices and must make a positive contribution to Australia’s energy transition use innovative, efficient and sustainable solutions to minimise water use, meet infrastructure costs and support transparent reporting on consumption and performance and minimise community impacts and be appropriate for their size, function and infrastructure requirements, avoiding inappropriate locations near homes, schools and prime agricultural land for potential housing sites.

The Commonwealth and Queensland’s Liberal and National Party government are at odds over the federal government’s insistence that new centres be tied to new renewable energy projects.

Queensland is resisting the plan that coal and gas be excluded.

Energy minister Chris Bowen said at the weekend the federal government was “not going to let Queensland run a race to the bottom, which would see energy bills go up, reliability go down, because they want data centres at any cost”.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor said on Monday the Coalition was “absolutely neutral” about fuel sources.

“We won’t be picking the fuel source.

That should be done by people who actually are paying for it and building it.

This is the problem with Labor.

Chris Bowen has managed to drive electricity prices up by 40% and send industry offshore because he thinks he knows best.” In a Tuesday speech to the Business Council’s annual dinner, released ahead of delivery, Albanese says Australia is strongly placed to attract data centre investment “but maintaining social license will be essential”.

“That means ensuring energy bills do not rise, water security is maintained and locations are appropriate.

"Getting this right can ensure Australia is the infrastructure partner for our region, aided by our status as a Five Eyes Partner.