Dr Bronwyn Cumbo

You can see that in the submissions coming through in the parliamentary inquiry.

The Department of Planning does assess for cumulative impact for things like noise and also air quality.

But what that means in terms of practice on the ground, how that's monitored and regulated and enforced is another question altogether.

So it is something that communities are concerned about.

Oh, most certainly.

I think this is such an interesting space and there are a lot of researchers looking at this in academia and also just out in the field in industry.

I think it's an interesting tension because AI is being touted as this opportunity, which it is in many areas, but also the tension in terms of the realities and the material realities on the ground is

I think there's a lot of work to be done in terms of nutting out what that tension means for the Australian context, for the Sydney context.

You know, every place is different.

In terms of the regulation, Australia's very much been caught on the hop in terms of data centre expansion.

So the industry came in and we really didn't have a clear understanding about what this infrastructure is all about.

and was and remains to be and is expanding to become.

So it is a constantly evolving piece of technology.

If you think about data centres as a visible node in a much more global, in a global largely invisible network, that's one way we can start to think about data centres.

Currently they're kind of assessed as though they're a standalone building like a factory or a warehouse.

That's definitely not what they are or how they operate, which is explained through, you can start seeing through the clustering.

So I think the planning assessment process does need some interrogation, which the government's doing at the moment.

They're looking at how it can improve.

It's just that the government processes are thorough and slow and the industry is far more nimble and also looking to maximise their efficiency.

benefits, their economic benefits, and get their foot in the door with Australia.