Premiers and chief ministers will meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney today to fight over who gets to set the rules for AI data centres, while women and children keep living with the fallout of a system that can’t stop violence and won’t properly track the money. The national cabinet agenda also includes bird flu, domestic violence, fuel security and the national gun buyback. The machinery is busy. The people at the bottom are still waiting.
Who Gets to Decide
The biggest source of disagreement is the federal government's plan to impose national standards for data centres. Those standards would require developers to bring their own renewable energy and set other parameters around water usage and community contributions. Queensland and the Northern Territory oppose the renewables-focused standards, and both governments are making the old familiar noise about “freedom” while defending their own power to choose which corporations get what.
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said his government would not be “forced” into a particular energy pathway by the Commonwealth. “We're our own state and we're pushing back,” he said. He said there were potential investment opportunities in Queensland for data centres, but “it's going to be all forms of electricity and we're not going to force renewable energy on regional communities.” Bleijie called Chris Bowen a “fool” for threatening to override states and said the federal minister “doesn't understand the constitution.” “Chris Bowen should be trying to work with state and territories government, not be a big brother bully as he's trying to do in this case,” he said.
Asked if Queensland would mount a challenge to any Commonwealth attempt to override the state, Bleijie said he did not believe it would be necessary. “No-one's going to have to challenge anything because the type of investment won't come because businesses will not invest it if there's only one form of electricity on the table,” he said. There it is. The market gets the final word, and everyone else is told to call that democracy.
The Territory Says It Knows Best
Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro also said she opposed national AI data centre standards, arguing states and territories should be free to make laws that “suit” the views of their community. “We don't need the federal government coming in heavy-handed and trying to dictate to states and territories, how they should be developing data centres or not, and what energy mix they should be using,” she told ABC Radio National.
Finocchiaro said the NT had an “incredibly unique situation” where the Beetaloo Basin had enough gas to power out the nation for 200 years and more. “We want recognised by the federal government,” she said. “Because if data centres are to want to develop in the territory, they should be utilising that enormous energy resource we have.” She said the national cabinet meeting was the first “real chance” leaders have had to discuss the issue directly. “There's nothing territorians hate more than a heavy-handed federal government, and I'll be here to stand our ground and make sure that territorians are put first at national cabinet,” she said.
The Australian Energy Market Operator has estimated data centres would grow from currently consuming 3 per cent of the nation's electricity supply to 13 per cent in a decade. Bowen said yesterday that if the government got the policy settings “right”, he was confident Australia could handle the electricity demands of data centres. “That's why we're requiring new data centres to bring their own renewable energy, backed by gas firming,” he said. Bowen has maintained the Commonwealth is prepared to legislate over the top of states, if necessary, though he has not outlined specifics. “The constitution is pretty clear about, if there's a dispute between Commonwealth legislation and state legislation, which legislation prevails,” he said. He also rubbished the suggestion of data centres running on nuclear small modular reactors, which he described as the “most expensive form of energy and the longest to deploy”.
Violence, Oversight, and the Money Trail
Agreement around progressing the next five-year national plan to end violence against women and children is likely, but the crossbench is pushing Albanese to do more than stage another round of managed concern. Yesterday, more than a dozen crossbenchers signed a letter asking him to use the national cabinet meeting to prioritise their calls to beef up the powers of the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission. The MPs and senators, including Allegra Spender, Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, Dai Le, Lidia Thorpe, Jacqui Lambie and Fatima Payman, want the commission made a statutory authority and given the ability to compel data, audit spending and track whether measures governments have funded are “actually working”.
“A decade of reviews and inquiries into domestic, family and sexual violence has produced more than 1,000 recommendations, yet women and children continue to die, and too many systemic failures remain,” the letter said. “Billions of dollars flow to states and territories every year for these programs, but there is no equivalent oversight of where that money goes or whether it is reducing harm.” That’s the hierarchy in plain language: money moves, reports pile up, and the violence keeps going.
Also at national cabinet, Albanese will raise domestic and sexual violence against women, with states and territories expected to agree to accelerate efforts to respond to the epidemic. They will also discuss priority areas for the next five-year national action plan to end violence against women and children, which is due to be released early next year. The plan is coming. The deaths and failures are already here.
The leaders are not due to discuss federal Labor's plan to standardise the private health rebate for all ages, effectively reducing the benefit for older Australians, which the South Australian government this week became the latest jurisdiction to oppose. That’s another neat little reminder of how “reform” often means a cut dressed up as administration.
Premiers and chief ministers will get a briefing from Australia's chief veterinary officer on the outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, which has now been detected in all six states. Cooperation is far more likely in the ongoing response to the deadly outbreak of H5N1 bird flu, which has reached all states although not the ACT and NT, and recently been detected in a mammal. Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will provide an update on the latest moves to ensure Australia's fuel security amid ongoing disruptions caused by the US war with Iran.
Albanese's attempt to establish a national gun buyback in the wake of the Bondi terror attack will be discussed at the meeting though developments are unlikely. Only NSW and the ACT have signed up to the proposal so far, while Western Australia recently completed its own voluntary program. But no further jurisdictions are likely to join the scheme. Despite a long-running public stoush about GST, the tax issue is not on the agenda, with multiple state sources telling the ABC their respective views on the current deal were already no secret.