community centres,
not data centres

No data centre should proceed without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of Traditional Owners, with cultural heritage protection embedded as a non-negotiable condition of all approvals.

The rapid expansion of AI data centres has intensified community resistance, exposing critical failures in how current approval processes handle land rights and cultural heritage. FPIC must be recognised as a collective right for Indigenous peoples; it is not optional but a prerequisite for any project to move forward.

To honour this principle, the approval process must provide clear, culturally safe information regarding all potential impacts—including those to waterways, skies, and sacred sites—and culminate in genuine collective decision-making by Traditional Owners. No facility should ever be situated on lands containing significant cultural heritage. Legislation must explicitly mandate that cultural heritage protection is assessed and protected throughout the lifecycle of any approved project.

Communities near proposed data centres must have genuine agency in decision-making, achieved through rigorous, informed consultation processes that establish binding federal standards for environmental and social impact.

Residents are raising urgent concerns about water consumption, energy resourcing, noise pollution, and the absence of meaningful consent. To address these issues, consistent federal legislation is critical to ensure that communities are not merely notified of developments but actively empowered to influence outcomes affecting their health, livelihoods, and environment.

This framework should include an Independent Regulator empowered to audit facilities, impose penalties for non-compliance, and order shutdowns where necessary. All approvals should require a transparent, rigorous assessment of both environmental and community impacts, underpinned by proper community consultation.

Data centre operators should be required to use closed-loop recycled water systems, with legislation updated to enforce these best practices.

As global temperatures rise and Australia faces increasingly severe droughts and bushfires, protecting our water supply has never been more critical. Yet data centres threaten that protection by consuming colossal amounts of it.

The scale of this demand is staggering. Sydney Water estimates that proposed data centres around Sydney could consume 250 megalitres of water per day by 2035—equivalent to 25% of the city’s entire drinking supply. Similar projections suggest data centres will account for approximately 30% of Melbourne’s drinking water.

In regions like the Northern Territory and north Queensland, where groundwater is particularly precious, the stakes are even higher. The NT relies on underground aquifers for 90% of its water. Projects such as the Beetaloo Basin gas hub and the Macarthur River mine are already placing immense pressure on these reserves. Diverting additional water to data centres would exacerbate shortages, harming remote Aboriginal communities that depend on these fragile systems.

Beyond water consumption, there is also the threat of contamination. Cooling systems can leach toxic forever chemicals into local waterways. This reinforces the urgent need for strict legislative safeguards that water is protected.

All data centres must be powered by 100% renewable energy, with no exemptions for coal or gas. Until federal legislation guarantees this standard and addresses the broader environmental and social impacts outlined above, a moratorium on all new AI data centres is required.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report makes it unequivocal that we must urgently transition away from fossil fuels to limit global warming. Data centres threaten this transition. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), they are projected to increase global energy demand by an amount equivalent to adding another Canada to the grid.