{"id":918783,"date":"2026-10-07T00:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/918783\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T00:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:26:18","slug":"australian-ai-inquiry-government-shared-draft-data-centre-rules-with-anthropic-during-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/918783\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian AI inquiry: Government shared draft data centre rules with Anthropic during negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"David<\/p>\n

October 7, 2026 \u2014 5:30am<\/p>\n

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The federal government gave Anthropic a draft of its data centre guidelines while negotiating a deal in which the Claude chatbot maker agreed to follow them, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.<\/p>\n

The guidelines, known as the data centre expectations and released on March 23<\/a>, tell developers of large new data centres to put the national interest first. The government says they are meant to stop data centres pushing up power bills.<\/p>\n

\"TreasurerTreasurer Jim Chalmers and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in April.<\/p>\n

They are not yet legally binding, but the government plans to make them mandatory under national AI standards to be legislated early next year. As proposed, that would put Anthropic\u2019s own Australian data centre plans under the rules it saw in draft. Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres has said projects need to meet the guidelines \u201cto secure Commonwealth government support\u201d.<\/p>\n

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company \u201creceived the draft expectations for consideration in the MOU\u201d signed with the government on April 1, a non-binding agreement to work together on AI. \u201cIt would be inaccurate to suggest we had any influence on the final data centre expectations,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Industry Department\u2019s own briefing material, written on March 18, five days before the guidelines were published, says, \u201cthe department consulted Anthropic on the development of the expectations\u201d. It adds that the advice could change \u201cpending the outcome of today\u2019s meeting with Anthropic\u201d. The rest of the passage was blacked out.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"SMH\/AFR:<\/a><\/p>\n

The government said it routinely consults widely, and that Anthropic was one of a number of stakeholders consulted across industry, experts and government. It said Anthropic agreeing to align with the guidelines was its condition for finalising the memorandum, the same approach it took with Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Microsoft signed its own memorandum on April 23, a month after the guidelines were published. The documents do not show whether Microsoft or any other company was given a draft.<\/p>\n

Data centres use about 3 per cent of the power on the national grid. The Australian Energy Market Operator expects that to reach 13 per cent within a decade.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Anthropic now has a stake in how the guidelines are applied. Last month it signed a lease on the first stage of a proposed $32 billion data centre campus at Western Downs in Queensland<\/a>. The deal still needs approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which vets foreign investment for the national interest.<\/p>\n

At its planned peak, the campus would draw 2.16 gigawatts, about the average use of 1.5 million Australian homes.<\/p>\n

\"AnthropicAnthropic chief executive Dario Amodei signed the memorandum in Canberra on April 1, when he met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
\nBloomberg<\/p>\n

Community opposition to data centres is growing. Local group Save Our Darling Downs has raised concerns about the Western Downs campus\u2019 energy use, and the Climate Council and Greenpeace have warned it could increase reliance on coal and gas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Anthropic and the project\u2019s developer said the campus would buy power from \u201ca combination of existing Queensland generators and new generation that will add more supply to the market than we will use\u201d. The statement did not say how much of that new supply would be renewable.<\/p>\n

Treasury\u2019s foreign investment policy, updated in May, says data centre proposals that align with the guidelines will be prioritised in the approval process where possible.<\/p>\n

The commitment to share the draft was made after a March 12 meeting with Anthropic. Joel Einstein, an acting general manager at the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, told a colleague to note \u201cthe commitment for DISR to send the draft copy of the expectations\u201d. The email was released to this masthead under freedom of information laws.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Shavarsh<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked whether a timeframe had been agreed, Einstein replied there was \u201cno timeframe commitment on sharing the draft expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The next day, Simon Writer, then the department\u2019s acting deputy secretary for science and technology, circulated an \u201cupdated MOU and confidentiality deed\u201d. Both were withheld.<\/p>\n

Kate Griffiths, the Grattan Institute\u2019s deputy director of democracy, said lobbying could improve policy, but well-resourced groups had far more access to decision makers. \u201cNo one should be surprised that these groups are knocking on doors,\u201d she said. \u201cBut politicians and public servants should be seeking out a wider range of views to adjudicate the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a federal register of lobbying contacts and the publication of ministers\u2019 diaries would show \u201cwho\u2019s lobbying who, on what, and how often\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Western Downs proposed data centre development.<\/p>\n

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei signed the memorandum in Canberra<\/a> on April 1, when he met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n

In it, Anthropic pledged to \u201calign its Australian operations\u201d with the expectations and to uphold Australia\u2019s laws and values. The memorandum says it gives Anthropic no preferential treatment in regulatory decisions or Commonwealth procurement. Anthropic has also pledged to pay its share of power generation and transmission costs in Australia, as it has in the US.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Separate documents published by the department show it engaged an adviser to check that its arrangements with AI companies were fair and properly run. Before the Microsoft deal was signed, the department told ministers the adviser had found \u201cno material probity concerns with the process undertaken to date\u201d.<\/p>\n

The department negotiating these deals was also courting the companies. Its brief for ministers meeting Amodei listed encouraging Anthropic\u2019s investment \u201cin line with our national interest\u201d first under \u201cwhat we want\u201d, with the key message that \u201cAustralia is a great place for Anthropic to invest\u201d. Ministers were given the same key message before meeting Microsoft three weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u2018It would be inaccurate to suggest we had any influence on the final data centre expectations.\u2019<\/p>\n

AI spokesperson<\/p>\n

Ayres said the Anthropic deal showed Australia was \u201copen for business, where investment aligns with Australia\u2019s priorities and Australian values\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ACTU declined to comment on whether it was consulted on the guidelines. Secretary Melissa Donnelly said unions wanted AI data centres regulated so they were \u201cforced to produce more energy than they use\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf big tech want to build in Australia they should pay their way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"These<\/a><\/p>\n

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who chairs a Senate inquiry into AI and data centres, said the companies that stood to profit from Australia\u2019s AI boom \u201cshould not be calling the shots on the rules that govern them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig AI needs to earn their social licence here in Australia,\u201d she said. She called for a moratorium on new data centres until stronger rules were in place.<\/p>\n

The government opened public consultation on the national AI standards last month. Submissions close on Friday.<\/p>\n

Get news and reviews on technology, gadgets and gaming in our Technology newsletter every Friday. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"DavidDavid Swan<\/a> is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 7, 2026 \u2014 5:30am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-918783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918783","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=918783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}