Local councils are calling to freeze AI data centre construction

Local councils are calling for a moratorium on data centre approvals, to cap their construction, and to restrict where they can be built, warning that the AI-fuelled building boom is draining water and power from housing developments and generating few long-term jobs.

As the federal government looks to fast-track the construction of data centres in Australia, three councils have told a state inquiry about the consequences of the uncoordinated explosion of 88 data centres built across Sydney and their fears about the scale of future development.