Parliament of Victoria | Legislative Council | Adjournment
25 August, 2026
David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan Region):
My adjournment is for the Premier. Six councils over the last four weeks in the western and northern suburbs have called for a moratorium on the approval of new data centres or the expansion of existing ones.
There is a universal view from council and residents that neither the regulation nor the social licence exists for these environmental vampires to be unleashed.
These concerns have been fuelled by the government’s refusal to release any sort of documentation on their approval process. This is evidenced by their refusal to release the sustainable data centre action plan, which this chamber has instructed the government to release.
The objections of council and residents groups to these billion-dollar developments are understandable given the speed with which these centres are being pushed through planning application processes with little or no public consultation, sustainability planning or even a convincing economic case.
Increasingly, the Department of Transport and Planning development facilitation program is being used to bypass local government scrutiny of these projects.
In the case of Hobsons Bay City Council, officers have noted that DFP application processes were deficient in many areas, including limited supporting material provided at the pre-application stage, no sustainability management plan being submitted, amenity concerns that were not responded to and insufficient time in the 14-day notice period to properly assess the development.
Created to drive industry and alleviate the housing crisis, the DFP is now little more than a tool to embolden developers and remove vital stakeholders from conversations on major developments they will be forced to live with for generations.
Communities have valid questions, like how much water and electricity will these centres use, where will it come from, and who will pay for it? Residents do not want to be picking up the electricity tab for local data centres, as has happened in other places such as Ireland.
Premier, AI is an important question for our entire population, but unregulated data centres are abhorrent and utterly devoid of social licence. The government’s decision to do these approvals in the shadows is in and of itself morally bankrupt and politically stupid.
So the action I seek is that the Premier approve a moratorium on data centres until a comprehensive regulatory framework premised on extensive community, local government and stakeholder consultation has been developed and adopted.
[Awaiting response]
