Queensland is set to become home to Australia’s largest AI data centre. Last month, Liberal National Party Premier David Crisafulli announced a landmark deal with Anthropic to develop the Western Downs Digital Park, near the town of Dalby, about 250 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. Led by Singaporean developer Zerra DC, the site will be constructed in four phases, with the first building expected to be operational next year.
The data centre will occupy 725.5 hectares, an area twice the size of New York’s Central Park. Its estimated value is $32 billion, nearly five times the 2032 Brisbane Olympics infrastructure budget.
Data centres suck up huge amounts of power, driving up energy prices and accelerating climate change. When fully constructed, electro-mechanical engineer Dr Andreas Helwig told the ABC it would use the equivalent of 25 to 30 percent of Queensland’s total energy consumption.
The data centre will run primarily on electricity generated by coal and gas, drawn from the state’s electricity grid. Greenpeace estimates that the data centre would raise the grid’s emissions by 6.6 million tonnes, the equivalent of two million extra cars on the road.
Last month, Crisafulli wrestled with the federal government and eventually won a state exemption from the requirement that data centres run on renewable energy. The exemption, Crisafulli argued, was simply “common sense”; according to him (and now the Labor cabinet), environmental protections shouldn’t get in the way of AI investment opportunities.
While workers worry about AI’s impact on their jobs, power bills and the environment, Crisafulli has never been happier. He celebrated the data centre deal as the fruits of his five-day trip to the US in early September, where he met with the CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic. On the same trip, he met with US Vice President J.D. Vance and discussed Queensland’s potential to become the next link in the American critical minerals supply chain.
Crisafulli’s MAGA meetings highlight that this data centre is a story of more than just environmental degradation and corporate greed. Attracting investment in areas like AI and critical minerals is a part of a broader mission to strengthen Australia’s alliance with the US. The data centre boom is driven in part by the AI arms race between the US and China. In this context, striking a deal with the US’s largest AI corporation is not just a step towards turning Queensland as an AI investment hub. It also further integrates the Australian and US economies, so both countries are better placed to outpace competitors in the global tech arena.
Anthropic’s new project adds to the 225 other data centres currently in development in Australia and supported by both major parties. Politicians and tech billionaires have no compunction about the impact of their actions on people or the environment, so long as they are making money and moving up the imperialist pecking order. We need a political alternative that will fight for an immediate moratorium on data centres and a socialist society where we can all have a say in the future of our lives and the planet.
