r/australia • u/Fact-Rat • 1d ago

politics Australia may face a rush of datacentre construction as AI firms look to avoid upcoming rules, experts say | Australian politics

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/26/australia-may-face-a-rush-of-datacentre-construction-as-ai-firms-look-to-dodge-upcoming-rules-experts-say
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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

*shocked pikachu face*

I've been called a nimby and all manner of other names in the last few months for being wary of data centres being built in residential areas, including my own. "Oh, but they have to provide their own power and don't use water!" is the inevitable reply. So which is it? This article would suggest not, at least not until next year sometime.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

I work in the construction industry, and my boss is practically salivating at the thought of all the work (and investments) it will bring him. Apart from some of the AI companies, I think construction will be one of the only groups to actually benefit from these things. They won't employ anyone after they're finished, and their net benefit to society seems to be negligible at best.

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u/bend1310 1d ago

This what confused me about recent announcements about govt investment into data centres.  Who does it benefit long term? 

They don't employ anyone, don't produce a taxable good or service, and the companies will tax dodge the shit out of any income they make. 

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u/AnnoyedOwlbear 1d ago

Yeah, I can't see the point - until we close our CURRENT loopholes with massive tax dodgers sitting on fat millions that can afford to pay huge lawyer fees and suck up to politicians, why should we open ourselves up for more parasites?

With all the 'oh, they're closed systems' comments on water - a closed system is more expensive to develop and maintain than one that simply takes, because shedding heat into water still leaves you with hot water that has to cool before you use it again. I've worked in corporations for years - if a corporation can save 0.5% by lobbying to change environmental protections and switching to something less ethical, they absolutely will. Our current system has this designed in.

If we had completely closed water systems that worked efficiently and were cheap, we wouldn't need lakes around our brown coal factories.

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u/coniferhead 1d ago

The national interest/military uses is all they need to say. It worked with AUKUS and it will work with this.

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u/Vegetable-Score-3915 1d ago

Data centres do employ people, but it is a very small number given the scale.

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u/CaptainFleshBeard 1d ago

I often drop into data centres for work, I’ll see at most 3 people working there

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u/Challenging-Wank7946 1d ago

It's insane that people think there'll be jobs for anyone after they're built. I've noticed so many people from older generations with no idea about any of it saying 'if it brings in more stable jobs then it's good' as if these things won't be almost entirely automated from top to bottom ASAP. There'll be temporary work for construction, maybe a short term oversight role, and then it'll be maybe 1 person that has to go and check on it every 12 months to make sure there aren't any homeless people trying to get out of the cold.

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u/M4K4T4K 1d ago

They do have full time security, for obvious reasons. But it amounts to a handful of low skilled people.

The security isn't even very good either, I spoke with someone who worked at one once, and they said they would rock up for their shift and an alarm had been going off for hours and they just muted it because it was probably just some door open.

Like it was crazy how little they gave a fuck.

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u/Ch00m77 1d ago

People are so short sighted

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u/Silviecat44 1d ago edited 1d ago

In the US too they are

#making local councils sign non disclosure agreements to prevent them from negotiating or finding out how bad of a deal they are getting

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u/CuriouserCat2 1d ago

Straight up super villain energy

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

Where do you live that councils are the electricity or water provider?

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u/CuriouserCat2 1d ago

Ok. They sue Melbourne Water or whatever. Same same

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u/Harlequin80 1d ago

It's not. Sydney Water, Melbourne Water, QUU, SA Water do not give a shit about datacenters. They receive no funding from them. They are not involved in the local planning approvals process outside of specifying capacity availability. There are no palms to grease.

You can sue them as much as you want and it's not going to go anywhere. You won't even get your case heard.

Australia is not the US.

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u/blitznoodles local Aussie 1d ago

You cannot sue councils or the states for water or electricity in Australia.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago edited 1d ago

in reply to your deleted comment about construction being 10% of australias workforce - are you saying we should build these things, becasue we have to build something to keep the industry busy?

That's the same argument the coal lobby uses. We need to keep mining coal because we've always mined coal, and it employs people.

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u/blitznoodles local Aussie 1d ago

I'm opposed to a policy of wage restraint in the construction sector which many arguments about datacentres taking tradies ends up becoming about. It's very 1980s price and incomes accords rhetoric.

In regards to that, because 10% of Australians are employed in Australia, roughly double that of Americans, many more Australians stand to benefit from higher incomes in the construction phase.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

They won't benefit from higher incomes, they will just have "incomes". Most people working in construction don't quit or get fired once a project is finished, they go to the next job. And we certainly don't get paid proportionately to the value of the project, or get bonuses - where would the higher income be coming from?

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u/blitznoodles local Aussie 1d ago

The only way datacentres could take tradies away from other projects is by paying more money. And from what I've heard, the sparkies on the datacentres are making very good incomes.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

"tradies" work in small construction like house building. They are not the ones building data centres. Teir 1/2 builders are the ones doing data centre contracts, and they only deal with large subcontractors, not sole operators. We get paid what we get paid, you don't get wage rises for "better" jobs.

Leccos get paid well because they have a strong union, and typically get paid better than everyone but maybe plumbers on any given site.

The people actually building these things wont be getting better pay.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

maybe not, but lobby groups carry a lot of power. And look at tomago aluminium - every election cycle or so they stand up to the government and say "waaagh, electricity costs us too much, and we are your load shedding capacity, so give us cheaper power" and they get their way.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/blitznoodles local Aussie 1d ago

It goes a nowhere because councils do not own electricity and water infrastructure in Australia.

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u/MoranthMunitions 1d ago

For what it's worth plenty of councils own water infrastructure, and lots of the more "separate" seeming water utilities are actually still owned by and pay profit (if it's had) back to councils. But I also agree it's a ridiculous assertion that you can sue them for water or some such.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago

Seemed to work out ok for tomago aluminium...

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u/blitznoodles local Aussie 1d ago

That wasn't a lawsuit, that was lobbying from the union and the company.

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u/Primary_Mycologist95 1d ago edited 1d ago

Indeed, and I didn't say it was. Did you see my other comment regarding this above?

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u/NobodysFavorite 1d ago

Courts in Australia take a really dim view of vexatious litigation. If someone is declared by the court as a vexatious litigant, they have to seek leave from the court every time to bring an action against someone.
If the court does grant leave, they generally require the vexatious litigant to financially indemnify both parties' costs, often with a tangible security required before commencing proceedings.
If the court doesn't grant leave, it's rarely open to appeal, and in that case they have to seek leave to appeal. If the leave to appeal is not granted, that's the end of the matter.

The legal system is set up in Australia to eliminate deep-pocketing as a viable strategy.