Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (12:55): (2371) My question is to the Minister for Planning. My residents are concerned about a proposed 350-hectare hyperscale data centre in Plumpton. Can the minister please advise whether legally enforceable protections will be in place before any approval is granted, such as groundwater monitoring, environmental bonds, remediation guarantees and provisions ensuring that the companies themselves, not the local families and not Victorian taxpayers, will bear the full cost of any resulting harm to human health or environmental health? In Oregon a major data centre operator was forced to pay over $20 million to settle litigation over contamination of surrounding groundwater. In Chile a Google data centre was forced back to the drawing board after it was found they would need to use water equivalent to the needs of almost 50,000 people. We have already been warned about future water shortages in the west due to rapid population growth, but the Plumpton proposal is reportedly going to use up water equivalent to the needs of 350,000 people – seven times that. And in Ireland data centres now consume around 22 per cent of the country’s electricity supply, which has strained grid stability and driven up household costs. Obviously we also have the same issues here.