Thursday, 27 August 2026

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:50): Within a decade data centres will be using as much electricity as every single household in Victoria and New South Wales combined. That is what AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator, has said. Victoria’s environmental watchdog has now stepped in to object to a massive $1.1 billion data centre in Campbellfield. The evidence continues to mount. This data centre boom is out of control. The Melton, Hume, Brimbank and Maribyrnong councils have all called on the state Labor government to pause new data centre approvals. Whittlesea has pushed back, and the Greens are right there with them. We need a moratorium now. The government should be acting to halt these polluting AI data centre projects. They are not supported by their local communities. They are not supported by the evidence. Ben Carroll must close the floodgates that he has swung open for these big tech companies, because community must come first. If he cannot do that, what he and the Labor Party are saying is that they are fine with watching Victoria’s bills go up, our drinking water drained for profit and our clean energy transition put at risk. People are fed up.