Greenpeace Australia Pacific Media Release
Greenpeace Australia Pacific has called for an urgent pause on data centre approvals, after Anthony Albanese revealed the government’s AI legislation won’t be introduced until 2027.
The PM outlined plans for “greater clarity and speed for approvals” for data centre proponents, but, despite acknowledging the severe strain these facilities place on Australia’s land, water, and clean energy resources, will not bring legislation to Parliament until early next year.
Last month, Greenpeace called on the Federal Government to urgently implement a moratorium on the construction and approval of new data centres until appropriate regulations and safeguards are in place to protect the climate and communities.
Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“The PM’s speech today shows that this government is kicking the can down the road, while Australians right around the country are calling for urgent regulations on AI data centres that are already being built in their backyard. We shouldn’t be talking about ‘faster decision making’ when there are no laws in place to protect our communities from this dangerous industry.
“We urgently need a moratorium on AI data centre approvals until there are binding rules in place to protect our communities, our climate and our environment.
“The Prime Minister is rolling out the red carpet for these water-guzzling energy vampires, with no plans to regulate them until at least 2027 – that is a betrayal of Australian communities and our national interest.
“Big tech companies are looking to make Australia their second home, but in the US, AI data centres are wreaking havoc on people’s health, drinking water and air by running their data centres on gas. They’ve set their own house on fire, and we shouldn’t be opening the door to let them do that here.
“No new data centres should be approved until there are clearly defined, enforceable regulations in place, including requiring 100% additional renewable energy, that protect people, our climate and our environment – and absolutely no new fossil fuels like gas.”
Also by Greenpeace Australia Pacific
Greenpeace challenges misleading gas lobby war profits claims
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I was quite hopeful after his statement, but am getting increasingly upset by what Labor is and is not doing.
Decisions like this are ignoring various international studies and events which correctly inform that AI databases are bad for locals, water supplies and energy use.
Bad show Albo!
The physical dangers from data centres that are outlined here are serious, but there are hidden dangers as well.
The enthusiasm surrounding digital data collection is almost infantile.
Julian Assange warned: Digital archives make it possible to erase history almost imperceptibly.
First the page disappears, then the event itself.
The meaning of this idea is simple and alarming: first the user sees the message “page not found” then the link disappears, then the material drops out of the index, and after a while the event itself begins to be perceived as if it had never happened.
You build the fence before planting the garden. Get some sense on this, Albanese.
The donations to Labor must be almost eye-wateringly huge for this travesty to be foisted upon us.
Albo’s speeches on controlling AI data centres are all fluff and bubble. Silicon Valley Big Tech is already established and operational and has its algorithms in place. Just look at how Meta and Twitter-X operate – they do what they want to do whilst politicians wring their hands with feigned anguish.
Certainly there should be a two year moratorium on AI development, which has already escaped control in how many locations?? (About 160).
ALL AI projects should come with their own energy supply preferably built close by, which would mean in/near regional centres; they should also come with their own water supply capable of running the AI Centre during drought periods WITHOUT raiding the public water infrastructure.
The Albanese LABOR government has Canberra Bubble Disinterest, when understanding the Australian climate especially the amount of REGULAR precipitation that is required to support these projects.
The present ”surge in public interest” is a very biased propaganda war to deaden and mislead their resistance to an offensive development.
Here’s what the Labor-centric John Curtain Research Centre had to say about it all, in its 50+ page report of 14 June 2026 all about AI & implications & implementation.
It’s a long report stressing ‘sovereignty’, and somewhat tedious, but well worth a read to the end. I was left wondering how and at what cost we envisage launching our own raft of satellites (no mention in the report) to fulfill that ‘sovereignty’
The people behind Apple, Invidia, Intel and others, are felationistically getting Trumpery favoured advances and thus huge wealth in matters of A I and the controlled “chip” market. I expect to go down and back, but the mega rich will organise all that. Anyway, bugger our only home planet.
Put simply AI sucks. These big tech companies doing all this AI rubbish just want everything handed to them on a platter…………..completely FREE. They go around demanding everything for free, from music to movies to people’s identities, books, journo articles, everything. Forget all about ownership rights, they want it all and they want it all for free. Then they want to chuck these ginormous data centres out in the burbs and suck up all the electricity and water to run them. Meanwhile our prices all go up.
And just to top it all off AI does not even work properly yet. Think of AI movie clips and people with 6 or 7 fingers, think of fake AI articles to mislead people, think of fake AI nudes of anyone you want, just think of fake AI anything. None of it is really productive to society in general.
Assange would know, an alleged ‘lefty’ who liaised with bona fide RWNJs, both Nigel Farage and Roger Stone, according to the Mueller Report, on DNC emails to stymie Democrats Vs Trump.
Apparently, mainstream media have been selling this speech as showing Albo has it under control and has shown good leadership.
That is rubbish. Agreed Mediocrates, it was just froth and bubble.
Indeed, Joe Rafalowics rightly describes it as a betrayal.
As the report that Clakka alerts us to shows, there is a great deal at stake here. Labor is simply handing our ‘computing sovereignty’, or whatever you’d like to call it, over to the US oligarchs.
Where is the plan for Australia to have control of how these technologies run our lives? Labor hasn’t got one; it would seem. Instead, a handful of oligarchs, and whomever might control them, will have the ability to shut down whatever it is that this AI controls – that could end up being the works.
Writing on Deepcut, Greg Jericho made short work of the import of the benefits of AI that Albanese touted. He concluded “Would you buy a product based on that pitch? It reads like an email from a company that somehow got through your spam folder.“ It should be noted that as a writer whose work is being stolen by AI as we speak, that he would have a vested interest in savaging Albanese’s speech.
Writing on lamestream media, Osman Faruqi, said “Anthony Albanese has failed to announce a single policy to address the industrial challenges created by AI..” and that Labor had sided with big tech rather than workers and artists.
In his speech, Albanese said: “The new standards will set out clear rules for large data centres— including a legal obligation to underwrite their own new power supply, pay their full share of connection costs so energy bills are not impacted, reduce power when needed to strengthen the grid, and be as water efficient as possible. “
As efficient as possible in the corporate world is not a standard, it is a request; what could possibly go wrong? where are these standards now? as Greenpeace points out there should be a moritorium until they and the regulations are in place.
It was just Albanese feeding out fodder for fools. Labor is betraying the people in favour of the corporate elite yet again.
If you voted Labor ahead of more progressive alternatives in ’25, when you look at your grandchildren do you think ‘Haaaaaaaaa haaaa, I’d rather have Labor in power than avoid leaving control over your entire life with some sociopathic, greedy oligarch.
Seriously, how brain challenged is Albanese?
How many brown bags is this bloke picking up? Utiltities sector, Murdoch, Property Market & Negative Gearing and now NextDC?
https://pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/07/the-pity-of-modern-systemic-corruption-in-politics/?
https://michaelwest.com.au/systemic-corruption-at-the-nacc-is-a-culture-not-a-legalistic-nuance/