At a glance

  • Queensland will take planning and assessment of data centre applications away from local councils, under a framework the government says will roll out in coming weeks.
  • Proponents will need a social impact assessment and a community benefit agreement with the council before lodging, the model Queensland has applied to wind and solar farms since July 2025.
  • Western Downs Mayor Andrew Smith says the state has assured the council it remains assessment manager for Zerra DC's 1.44GW campus at Kogan.
  • Zerra has asked for "prescribed process" status, which the ABC reports would let the coordinator-general take the Kogan decision from the council.
  • How the framework treats applications lodged before it starts, including Kogan, is still to be published.

The Queensland Government will take the planning and assessment of data centre applications away from local councils, the ABC reported on 2 October 2026. The state said many councils do not include data centres in their planning schemes, "which creates confusion and inconsistency". Data centres in Queensland will need a community study and a signed council agreement before they lodge, as wind and solar farms do, and the state will take over their assessment. The ABC report names one project, Singapore developer Zerra DC's Western Downs Digital Park. Western Downs Regional Council says it has been told it keeps that decision, and Zerra has separately asked the state to step in.

Queensland applies its wind farm model to data centres

The framework will require a social impact assessment and a community benefit agreement with the local council before a development application is lodged, which the government said mirrors its changes to renewable energy projects. Queensland brought wind and solar farms under that system in July 2025 and battery storage of 50MW or more on 12 December 2025. Wind farm applications are assessed by the State Assessment and Referral Agency, the state's planning assessment body, with public notification and third-party appeal rights.

"We will treat these projects no worse and no better than we do mining, renewables or tourism projects," the government said in its statement. "Any deals must be done with the backing of councils and communities."

Premier David Crisafulli set out his conditions on 1 October 2026: "If data centres want to do business in Queensland, here's the non-negotiables: you're not going in people's backyards, you're not pinching our power, and you're not shipping our data off overseas." He said investment that drives down power bills and creates jobs would get a "big tick". The terms extend the two conditions he put to OpenAI and Anthropic in California in September: pay for new generation and build away from towns.

Queensland has had no data centre use definition or dedicated assessment category. Projects have been assessed by analogy to industry or research and technology uses in each council's scheme, law firm Gadens noted on 25 August 2026. New South Wales and Victoria each run a dedicated pathway, set out in the state-by-state policy tracker.

Queensland's operating facilities are listed in the directory of data centres in Australia, and the sites, power and five locations still open are in the Queensland spotlight.

Western Downs council will still decide the Kogan campus, mayor says

Zerra lodged the Western Downs Digital Park with Western Downs Regional Council on 17 August 2026: four 360MW buildings on 725.5 hectares at Kogan, about 37km north west of Dalby, valued by the ABC at A$31.9 billion at full build-out. Anthropic has signed to lease the first of the four buildings.

"We have been assured we will remain the assessment manager for the Western Downs Digital Park," Mayor Andrew Smith told the ABC. "We will control what we can control. We will stick to the facts as assessment managers." The council has no firm timeframe for its decision.

The two earlier changes reached applications that were lodged and undecided. When wind, solar and battery projects were brought under the community benefit system, sections 51H and 51IA of the Planning Regulation 2017 treated those applications as not properly made, and they had to be filed again with the study and the agreement attached, as set out in the first report on Zerra's Dalby data centre filing. On the mayor's account, the Kogan application, lodged about seven weeks before the announcement, stays with Western Downs Regional Council. Smith told the ABC in mid-September that conversations about a community benefit agreement with Zerra were underway.

Zerra applies for prescribed project status

Zerra has applied for "prescribed process" status under state rules, which the ABC reports would allow Queensland's coordinator-general to take the decision over from the council. The developer wants the state to speed up the approval.

Under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971, the minister can declare a project a prescribed project by gazette notice, and the coordinator-general can then, with ministerial approval, issue a step-in notice and become the decision-maker. The coordinator-general's own guide says the purpose of the declaration "is to overcome any unreasonable delays in obtaining project approvals".

Parliament set data centres aside from strategic project status in August

State Parliament passed the critical minerals amendments to the same Act on 26 August 2026, creating a new top tier of State strategic projects that can carry modification orders to other Queensland laws. An amendment barred data centres operated for research and development or commercial purposes from that tier, law firm Allens reported, defining a data centre as a structure used "wholly or mainly" for compute, data storage or networking.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the bar would hold "whilst the government develops the right settings for managing these projects under the Planning Act", as Queensland did for renewable energy projects. The August exclusion covers State strategic projects. Zerra's request is for prescribed project status, a separate pathway in the same Act.

What to watch

The amending regulation. Queensland brought batteries into the community benefit system in December 2025 by amending the Planning Regulation 2017, and a data centre change is likely to take the same form. Its transitional clause would decide whether applications lodged before it, including Kogan, are carried over or have to be filed again.

The size threshold. Solar farms enter the system at 1MW and batteries at 50MW. The cut-off chosen for data centres would decide how many smaller metropolitan AI data centre and edge projects move from councils to the state.

The prescribed project request. A ministerial declaration on Zerra's application would be gazetted, and would let the coordinator-general step in and take the 1.44GW decision from Western Downs.

The rate card. Western Downs prices community benefit for solar and wind per megawatt. Its agreement with Zerra would give other Queensland councils a reference point for pricing data centres.