Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:56): (2372) My question is to the Minister for Energy and Resources. Constituents in the Southern Metro Region are concerned about the proposed AI data centre in Port Melbourne and the wider growth of energy-intensive data centres. A real-world example of this getting out of control is in Ireland. A recent Irish report found that data centres there consume 22 per cent of Ireland’s electricity, more than every urban household combined. Irish households have already paid an estimated €715 million in additional electricity costs, and that is predicted to double over the next decade. The government’s sustainable data centre action plan, much vaunted, says that these centres should be powered sustainably while maintaining reliability and security for all Victorians. Given reporting that demand from new data centres could push Victoria back towards gas-fired power, will the minister require – not request – that new AI and data centre operators build or contract genuinely additional renewable energy and storage so their electricity demand does not increase emissions, pressure on the grid and bills for my residents in Southern Metro?