The National Growth Areas Alliance (NGAA) welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee Inquiry into Artificial Intelligence and Data Centres.
Growth area councils are now at the forefront of Australia’s government-incentivised, investor-driven data centre development, at the same time as they are expected to deliver 26% of the National Housing Accord housing supply targets — around 300,000 new homes. Importantly, growth area LGAs contain 71% of Australia's major city industrial land supply, but a significant proportion lacks the infrastructure and servicing required to support investment.
NGAA members recognise the significance of data centre investment to Australia’s digital economy and future productivity, but data centre developments are also creating real planning, utility, community and land use pressures for councils.
The NGAA welcomes the steps taken by the Australian government to establish a national approach but argues that all states need to engage early with councils and to provide consistent, specific guidance on data centre development to ensure the environmental and social impacts are addressed.
Read our full submission below.
