Victoria's $5b data centre queue hits minister's caretaker deadline

Nine data centre applications with a combined value above $5 billion are sitting with Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, and The Age reported she has until 6pm on Tuesday to act. Once caretaker conventions begin, government decisions are frozen ahead of the 28 November election. The Age reported that any application not decided in time would be pushed past the poll and probably well into next year.

First in line is Stockland's Brooklyn proposal, which would turn a distribution centre the company owns into a facility as tall as an eight-storey building. The site would span 22 hectares between Francis Street and the West Gate Freeway, and the full project would cost almost $1 billion, with stage one at $935 million. Noise is a design issue: Stockland's acoustic consultants found that the 96 rooftop chillers need an 11-decibel reduction package to meet state limits, and the nearest houses on Millers Road are 170 metres away.

Stockland lodged its application in May under the Development Facilitation Program and had been expecting an answer in October. That ministerial route sidesteps local councils and removes residents' appeal rights, and almost all of Melbourne's proposed data centres are going through it.

On Friday, all 79 Victorian councils called for a moratorium on new data centre approvals. Municipal Association of Victoria president Jennifer Anderson said councils were not being given enough time, information or resources to assess the cumulative impacts. Hobsons Bay City Council, whose area covers the Brooklyn site, objected to the plan and told the state government that community oversight had become a meaningless procedural step.

Brooklyn resident and campaigner Carmen Largaiolli said, "I'm calling for a moratorium along with the growing voice of community groups from all over Melbourne." She argued that hyperscale developers secure stage one and then expect later stages to follow. Local Labor MP Melissa Horne backed giving community feedback more weight on the proposals still awaiting a decision.

The Australian Energy Market Operator projects that data centres will go from 2 per cent of national grid capacity to 6 per cent within a decade. Data Centres Australia, an industry group, counters that concerns about energy use are inflated by "phantom demand". A Victorian government spokesman said each proposal received a rigorous assessment, but would not say how many of the nine would be decided by the deadline.