Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:43): My question is for the Minister for Water. While AI potentially brings great benefits, there are enormous environmental costs, in particular the water and energy required to run data centres. The New York Times reported last week that a 100-megawatt data centre consumes roughly 2 million litres of drinking water per day. That is the equivalent of 6500 households. And in western Melbourne, there are currently 19 data centre development applications. As the AI arms race heats up, community water supplies are being threatened. There is currently no statewide policy about where the water for proposed data centres will come from and how they will impact already stressed reservoirs, waterways and wetlands. Last week I met with groups connected to the Maribyrnong and Werribee rivers, which are already over-extracted and in ecological decline. My constituents ask: will the minister meet with key stakeholders of the Urban Waterways Alliance to update them on how proposed data centres are likely to impact our already stressed waterways and rivers?