The Victorian Greens have warned Labor against using the final weeks before caretaker mode to fast-track mega data centres.
It comes as reports today reveal the Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has signed off on a string of contentious developments in recent weeks, overriding councils and community objections through the government’s controversial fast-track Development Facilitation Program.
The Greens say attention must now turn to a number of enormous data centre proposals currently sitting within the same fast-track planning system.
Among them is the proposed $1.1 billion “Project Dune” development on the former Ford factory site in Campbellfield. The proposal has faced significant community opposition and a formal objection from the EPA, which raised concerns about potential noise risks and cumulative impacts from the development.
Other major data centre developments in Campbellfield Old Ford Factory site, Mickleham, South Morang and West Footscray are also currently before the government through its fast-track planning pathway.
The Victorian Greens have written to the Planning Minister staunchly warning against Labor using the final weeks before caretaker mode to fast-track controversial mega data centres and demanding clarification over the 8 data centres that are currently sitting in the approvals pipeline that will not be subject to any new regulations.
The Greens have called for a moratorium on new data centre approvals and compensation for local communities who have been forced to cop the consequences of these data centres ranging everything from lowered house values to air and sound pollution.
The issue is shaping up to be a hot button election issue with the Greens as the only ones with a hardline position to stop the disastrous impact of these hyperscale AI data centres in Victoria.
As stated by the Victorian Greens spokesperson for AI and data centres, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
“Labor is racing against the clock to wave through controversial developments before the election, and Victorians deserve to know whether mega data centres are next. The Planning Minister needs to come clean about which data centres she plans on approving in the dying weeks before caretaker mode.”
“We know that data centres are an issue that people in Victoria are taking to the ballot box because communities are fed up with Labor taking them for granted and treating neighbourhoods as playthings for their corporate mates. The Greens are the only ones who have actually taken a hardline stance against data centres and the disastrous risk they pose to our electricity grid, draining water supplies and leaving local communities to wear the impacts.”
As stated by the Victorian Greens MP for Northern Metropolitan, Anasina Gray-Barberio:
“Communities continue to be locked out of decisions about enormous data centres that will consume extraordinary amounts of electricity and can have serious noise and environmental impacts. In Campbellfield, the EPA itself has raised serious concerns about Project Dune, yet the final decision now sits with a Labor Minister using a fast-track process that cuts councils and communities out.
“It’s incredibly suspicious that Labor are in a race to wave through developments for their corporate mates via this dodgy Development Facilitation Program and I think every Victorian will be asking why Labor is trying to lock down these controversial billion-dollar projects that provide absolutely zero benefit to the community on the eve of an election.”
