An NSW data centre frenzy has produced a parliamentary report that finds approvals failed to consider the cumulative effect on power and water, but stops short of calling for a pause. The Public Accountability and Works Committee published its findings this week.
The report notes that if the 22 new data centres either approved or still in the process used 80 percent of their stated capacity, they would consume more than double the electricity of greater metropolitan Sydney. It also flags water use that could reach a quarter of the city’s total. The committee voted 6-1 against recommendations for a state and national moratorium “until such time as all social and environmental harms can be fully understood.”
What the NSW data centre frenzy report actually says
Committee chair Abigail Boyd, a Greens upper-house member and the sole vote for a pause, wrote in the foreword that the “gravitational pull” of billions of dollars in AI investment had “distorted all other domains of society around it.” She said the surge had “clear bubble-like characteristics.”
“This is an AI-fuelled data centre frenzy. The pipeline of planned projects is astonishing in scale, threatening to consume incomprehensibly large volumes of energy and water to feed their demands,” she said.
The majority of the committee called instead for a comprehensive data centre strategy and better coordination between the authorities that approve sites, power connections and water. It stopped short of a halt. The same week AirTrunk abandoned its final Lane Cove proposal, saying the site was not technically suitable, and shifted focus to larger projects away from metro areas. Locals in the suburb had already put “No Data Centre” signs on their fences.
Why the vote is the number that is on the record
The inquiry is the first state-level look at the cumulative load. Bloomberg had already found that only 23 percent of large Sydney and Melbourne projects have confirmed grid connections. NextDC deferred $140 million in Melbourne revenue last month after residents blocked transmission lines. The NSW report is the first document that puts a water and power multiple on the pipeline in one city and then declines to pause it.
