00:02Yeah, so a couple of months ago, before the recent headlines about how AI is going to
00:06kill us all, we were getting a much more positive message about artificial intelligence from
00:10the Prime Minister when he delivered a landmark speech in which he said that Australia would
00:15love to get this investment from foreign AI companies into Australia.
00:19That's an important technology.
00:21But saying, you know, we want to do this on our own terms, talking about the social license
00:25that these companies need to have to build these data centres here.
00:29So kind of like, you know, rolling out a red carpet, but having a bouncer there saying
00:32you can come in, but you've got to meet these standards.
00:36Those were specifically about things like power and water use.
00:41Many people have probably heard that there's been community concern over the environmental
00:45impact of these data centres.
00:47And so the government said we're going to create these new national standards that we will have
00:52to work with the states with and we'll try and legislate by early 2027.
00:58Okay.
00:59So since that announcement from the Prime Minister, we've heard a little bit more about its implementation.
01:04What more do we know now?
01:06Yeah, I mean, one of the big challenges with this area is that there is so much appetite
01:11at the moment to build out the data centres that are the infrastructure that kind of powers
01:16the generative AI boom, you know, products like Chack GPT and Gemini and those kinds of things.
01:21And so while the government is kind of working on these things, data centre approvals continue
01:28to happen.
01:29Construction is keeping happening.
01:31And what the Prime Minister said shortly after that speech is that these rules, which are
01:36not still expected to be introduced into law for at least six months from now, they will
01:41not be retrospective already built.
01:44And obviously in construction, data centres will not have these rules apply analysis that
01:49we did looking at planning documents and company records shows there's at least 25 significant
01:56data centre projects that have already been approved and are currently being built that
02:01may still yet be years away from actually, you know, coming to fruition that will then escape
02:07these rules and therefore not have to apply, not have to comply with minimum power and water
02:12standards.
02:13And so what does this exemption to these new rules then mean for the communities around
02:19these new projects?
02:20Yeah, so I mean, the Prime Minister was saying, you know, we need this social licence, we need
02:23to have these rules so that people feel comfortable having them in their communities.
02:27You know, one person I spoke to in the story who is upset about a local data centre development
02:32said, you know, I personally didn't want it either way, but he was saying at the very
02:37least, if it is going to come here, I'd like to see it improve its environmental impact.
02:42And that person told me, and this is, you know, not just limited to them, that they are disappointed
02:47that these new rules that are supposed to set these minimum standards won't come into
02:52effect for quite a while.
02:54So there is this kind of mismatch between the speed of development and the speed at which
02:58these new rules are coming into effect.
03:00And so as you said earlier, the Prime Minister was looking to sort of roll out the red carpet
03:05somewhat to investment in these data centres.
03:08But is the uncertainty over these rules now affecting investment in Australia's data centres?
03:14Yeah, according to analysts I spoke to, they're saying that if it is dampening it, there's so much
03:18demand that it's not really stopped the huge appetite to build this out.
03:23But I mean, like these data centres, I mean, I think Westpac estimated at bringing in about
03:28$150 billion in investment just into the data centres themselves.
03:33So there's this enormous amount of money coming in.
03:35Australia has this situation where we are, you know, a country that has a good energy grid,
03:41skilled workforce, we're probably five eyes.
03:43A number of things that makes us a very attractive destination for major AI companies to set up here.
03:50And they are clearly very keen to do so.
03:53And so, you know, an analyst I spoke to mentioned, well, like, developers are used to dealing with the uncertainty,
03:58you know, regulations are always changing.
04:01That being said, you know, the head of the data centres Australia group said, you know,
04:05we think that we are doing enough to already address some of these social licence issues,
04:10but we can't comply with rules that aren't in effect, let alone even kind of established yet,
04:16aren't even specified.
04:17So the fact that we're not necessarily meeting these doesn't mean that we won't,
04:20but it's hard to say that we are if they don't exist yet.
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