Amanda McKenzie

So it's a significant increase in power usage.

And of course, it's happening at the same time where we are transitioning our grid away from fossil fuels to renewables, which is very successful.

We're already at 45% renewables in the grid, and we're on a trajectory to get to around about 80% by 2030.

But if you're adding a whole lot more energy into the grid, that could dilute that benefit.

So we need to be matching new demand with new renewable energy.

Well, the first one is from a climate perspective.

So if you are matching new data centres with gas, for instance, that's a huge amount more climate pollution, which exacerbates the climate crisis.

It also has an impact on power prices too.

So the estimates are if you were to match

new data centres with gas power, that would be about a 25% increase in prices in New South Wales and Victoria because fossil fuels are now much more expensive than new renewable power.

So there is a consumer aspect as well as the climate change aspect.

Then there's the water aspect too.

So of course, data centres need water to cool.

And so that is a surging

demand as well.

And that's in the context of Australia's climate, particularly in the southeast and the southwest becoming hotter and drier due to climate change.

So there are things that can be done about these things.

And so our argument is it's happening.

Government needs to be proactive to ensure that we're working in the interest of the community rather than the interest of the American tech companies.

Well, what we argue is that it's not sufficient just to have voluntary commitments, that it needs to be mandatory and enforceable.