![\"Brittany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768905264_300_af71def990bb09f8d3ae9269dff8c75c2d45963c.png\")
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March 22, 2026 \u2014 10:31pm<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Tech giants seeking to build artificial intelligence data centres in Australia should create their own renewable infrastructure to avoid sucking up domestic resources if they want to win government support under new investment guidelines.<\/p>\n Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres will announce on Monday a set of expectations for prospective developers looking to build sprawling AI infrastructure in Australia<\/a> as the government seeks to harness the economic and productivity benefits of the rapidly developing technology.<\/p>\n Advocates have warned the massive amount of energy and water required to run data centres poses a risk to Australian resources and energy security, and an increase in demand could drive up energy prices. The energy market operator has forecast data centres could quadruple their consumption of energy produced by the national grid to 12 per cent by 2050.<\/p>\n Under the new guidelines, pitched as a way to boost investor confidence by establishing a nationally consistent framework, data centre developments will be expected to use water efficiently to stabilise server temperatures and support Australia\u2019s renewable energy transition without driving up consumer prices.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be achieved by data centres adding new supply of clean energy, paying their full share of network connection costs, and supporting demand flexibility to strengthen the grid. Non-genuine proposals will not be welcome,\u201d a departmental briefing paper on the new guidelines says.<\/p>\n Proposals \u201cmost closely aligned\u201d with the guidelines will be prioritised, but investors won\u2019t be required by law to comply. Resilience and national security will continue to be considered as part of the prioritisation.<\/p>\n Projects should also preserve Australia\u2019s national interest by protecting data and fostering a social licence to operate, investing in Australian skills and jobs, and supporting local research and innovation.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s National AI Plan relies on investment in data centres, huge computer server facilities used for cloud storage, and it shies away from heavy regulation as it attempts to boost the nation\u2019s languishing productivity rate with the technology. Labor is seeking to retain Australia\u2019s title as second only to the United States as the global destination for<\/a> AI investment, which has helped grow the nation\u2019s economy.<\/a><\/p>\n Ayres said the capability advancements offered by data centre investment could be deployed to help address Australia\u2019s national challenges.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cSecuring this infrastructure onshore strengthens our security, supports our startups and researchers and ensures Australian data benefits Australians \u2013 not offshore jurisdictions,\u201d Ayres said in a statement.<\/p>\n Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell welcomed the goal of protecting Australian resources and jobs and urged the government to ensure there were enforcement mechanisms in place to boost compliance.<\/p>\n Ayres\u2019 predecessor, Ed Husic, has said the rush to dominate the data centre sector without a comprehensive plan to regulate the industry more broadly risked leaving Australia exposed to the dangers of the rapidly evolving technology.<\/p>\n \u201cData centres is one thing, but it\u2019s not the be-all and end-all of AI. It\u2019s like trying to suggest that if we have the biggest number of hard drives, we\u2019ll be right with the technology. I mean, that is such a simplistic and basic view,\u201d Husic told The Issue podcast earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got to be a lot more detailed and thought through than just [building data centres].\u201d<\/p>\n Husic, who was industry minister in the Albanese government\u2019s first term before being dumped from the frontbench in a factional reshuffle in May, said the government was taking a \u201cspotfire approach\u201d to AI where only the loudest voices were prioritised.<\/p>\n Ayres scrapped Husic\u2019s AI advisory body, which would have brought together leading experts to advise on AI guardrails, in favour of a safety institute that will assess the need for new laws on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ayres said: \u201cExisting laws,\u202fcovering workplace safety, consumer protection already\u202fapplies\u202fto AI today. The safety institute\u2019s job is to work across government to ensure these laws continue to be fit for purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n The announcement comes as job losses in the thousands and attributed to expanding AI capability have sent shockwaves through the global tech sector, sharpening concerns over its potential to inflict damage on Australian jobs.<\/p>\n Global software giant Atlassian, headquartered in Sydney, this month said it would axe 1600 jobs<\/a>, just weeks after WiseTech Global, one of Australia\u2019s most valuable technology companies, slashed nearly a third of its workforce, <\/a>about 2000 jobs.<\/p>\n Opposition digital economy spokesman Aaron Violi said: \u201cIn the first three months of this year, we\u2019ve witnessed thousands of Aussie jobs lost <\/a>and the Albanese Labor government has been silent.\u201d<\/p>\n Leading Australian artificial intelligence researcher Professor Toby Walsh has said Australia has not learned the lessons of social media and the dangers of unregulated tech, arguing a lack of AI guardrails was putting younger generations at risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re about to supercharge the sort of harms we saw with social media with an even more powerful and persuasive technology,\u201d the University of NSW AI Institute\u2019s chief scientist told the National Press Club last month.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are huge financial incentives for the tech industry to move fast and break things \u2014 to break things like the mental health of our youth.\u201d<\/p>\n Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Industry](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/06a04fcc8d6106eee6db6efb230066ba5c30edd0.jpeg\")
Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres has outlined the expectations investors should meet for their Australian projects.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"AI](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f5ea56e6b02979b7183913ff7a874032624f8303.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Labor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/bf5057c8e1bd34cba8cc5ecabfd8c5409091d5cf.jpeg\")
Labor backbencher Ed Husic has warned the government not to take a \u201csimplistic and basic\u201d approach to AI regulation.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"Liberal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/590ed0e98f48c4f352801260b87de5d7783f2cc3.jpeg\")
Liberal MP Aaron Violi said Labor was failing to step up to the biggest technological boom in a generation.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n![\"Brittany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/af71def990bb09f8d3ae9269dff8c75c2d45963c.png\")
Brittany Busch<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 22, 2026 \u2014 10:31pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-557009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}