Concerns over planning process as George Town council gives go-ahead for 288MW AI factory despite opposition from locals
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The day before Anthony Albanese secured agreement with states and territories to develop national datacentre standards, a small council in Tasmania was grappling with the existing regulations in the face of strong community opposition to a new AI factory planned for its town.
The George Town council voted 6-1 to approve the plans of Australian developer Firmus to build a 288 megawatt (MW) datacentre at Long Reach, north of Launceston, but said it did so reluctantly.
The AI factory is planned on the former Gunns Pulp Mill site near the Tamar River, and has faced strong opposition from locals. A petition calling to stop the centre going ahead had nearly 6,000 signatures. More than 300 people wrote submissions on the application to the council.
Many of the submissions raised concerns about energy use, concerns about AI, or pointed to “commonwealth regulation”, according to the council’s agenda document, which said those concerns were “outside the scope” of the council’s role in deciding the application.
At the heated meeting to decide the centre’s fate on Tuesday, speakers lined up to express their objections to the proposal, with many saying the council should be waiting until new federal rules are in place.
Lorraine, one local who spoke at the meeting, pointed to the prime minister’s plans and said the council’s approval should wait.
“Last week on national TV, prime minister Anthony Albanese announced a landmark policy setting out new mandatory standards for large-scale AI datacentres to be built,” she said.
“Tasmania is part of Australia, and we deserve to be protected too,” she said.
On Wednesday, Albanese announced after national cabinet that the government would legislate from early next year a nationally consistent regulatory framework setting minimum requirements for large datacentres.
The federal government plans to work with states and territories on consistent mandatory standards on energy, water and land use, but the communique out of national cabinet stated that the legislation “will be designed to complement, not duplicate” state and territory planning and approval processes.
In George Town, councillors said they had to apply the law as it is today, not waiting for the future rules to come into effect.
“This is probably one of my hardest decisions while I’ve been on council in the last four years,” councillor Heather Ashley said.
