Tasmania's parliament opened submissions on AI data centres on 18 August 2026, with 400MW proposed across three northern sites. New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria have each put data centre settings in writing, and the committee has all three to draw on.
At a glance
Tasmania's parliament opened submissions into AI data centres on 18 August 2026, closing 21 September 2026.
Tasmania's data centre policy to date is a 2018 investment strategy from the Office of the Coordinator-General.
New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria have each written data centre settings, the newest being the NSW guidelines of 17 August 2026.
Three northern sites would draw about 400MW, against a Tasmanian peak demand of 1,812MW in 2024.
George Town Council is yet to decide the 288MW Bell Bay application it deferred on 28 July 2026.
Tasmania's parliament began taking submissions on 18 August 2026 on the AI data centres going up in the state's north. A House of Assembly committee resolved to hold the inquiry on 5 August 2026 and will take submissions until 21 September 2026.
Tasmania runs on hydro and wind, and that has drawn A$2.1 billion of AI factory construction to Launceston, with two more sites proposed in the state's north and about 400 megawatts of load across the three. The committee's terms of reference put three questions on the record: how power and water get allocated, what a proponent has to disclose, and what the state gets back. New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria have each answered a version of those questions in writing.
Tasmania's data centre policy to date is the Data Centre Action Strategy, an investment attraction document last updated in 2018 by the Office of the Coordinator-General. The committee is now writing the state's first settings for AI-scale load, with three other states' instruments to draw on. It reports to the House, and the government decides what to do with it.
The committee set its own terms of reference on 5 August 2026
The Standing Committee on Government Administration A, chaired by Labor's Brian Mitchell with Greens MP Tabatha Badger as deputy chair, resolved on its own motion to examine the construction and operation of AI data centres in Tasmania and to recommend future legislation. It follows a Greens petition for a moratorium on new AI and data facilities that drew more than 4,200 signatures by 29 June 2026. Business, Industry and Resources Minister Felix Ellis has said the government will not impose one, and that data centres should pay their way on water and energy.
The terms of reference run to seven items, the last a catch-all for anything incidental. The other six cover safeguarding public resources and the natural environment; whether Tasmania's Resource Management and Planning System recognises the specific impacts of AI and data facility development; parliamentary oversight of facility construction and resource allocation; mandatory public transparency on how much power and water these sites consume; community consultation opportunities; and ensuring Tasmanians receive tangible benefits from all AI and data facilities built in the state.
Four of the six ask for machinery Tasmania would have to build: a public register of what these sites consume, a reporting line to parliament, a planning scheme that recognises this class of development, and an answer on the community contribution question New South Wales and the Commonwealth have both been working through. A committee cannot create any of them. It can recommend, and the government decides.
New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria have each put settings in writing
The three took different routes. New South Wales wrote guidelines, South Australia changed its planning regulations, and Victoria funded an action plan alongside a general fast-track pathway.
Jurisdiction | What is in writing | Date |
|---|---|---|
New South Wales | Data Centre Guidelines tied to a fast-track planning pathway, setting efficiency, water, demand-flexibility and renewable procurement measures | 17 August 2026 |
South Australia | Planning regulation changes opening an essential infrastructure pathway, with SA Water supply advice and a Technical Regulator certificate required | 11 September 2025 |
Victoria | Clause 53.22 pathway administered through the Development Facilitation Program, plus a Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan | 20 September 2023 |
Tasmania | Data Centre Action Strategy, an investment attraction document from the Office of the Coordinator-General | 2018 |
Source: Infrastructure NSW, PlanSA, Planning Victoria and the Tasmanian Office of the Coordinator-General, August 2026.
The NSW guidelines are the fullest of the three. They set design efficiency thresholds, recycled water conditions, a 25 per cent demand-reduction capability, and power purchase agreements of at least ten years signed with generation projects that have not yet reached final investment decision.
South Australia's approach is narrower and older, and it applies earlier in the process. Since 11 September 2025, under the settings behind the state's new energy for new demand approach, a data centre application has to be lodged with "advice from SA Water that there is sufficient water supply to meet the requirements of the data centre" and a certificate from the Technical Regulator on the reliability, security and stability of the state's power system. The Office of the Technical Regulator has since published a guideline setting technical conditions for any connection at or above 100MW.
Victoria's Clause 53.22 sets assessment timeframes and lists data centres as one eligible use among many. The state's data centre document is the A$5.5 million Sustainable Data Centre Action Plan, funded on 27 November 2025 and published in March 2026.
The Tasmanian government announced an "AI Factory Zone" for the state's north on 1 July 2025. Both Firmus applications lodged since then are being determined by councils under the ordinary Tasmanian Planning Scheme, and no planning instrument giving the zone legal effect has been published. The state-by-state comparison sets out each jurisdiction's position as at its last update.
Tasmania's 2024 peak demand was 1,812MW
TasNetworks recorded maximum transmission demand from Tasmanian customers during 2024 at 1,812MW in its 2025 Annual Planning Report, against roughly 3,400MW of on-island generation. Energy Minister Nick Duigan has put the Firmus programme at about 400 megawatts in total to power the three sites. That is close to 22 per cent of the state's peak, and an energy consultant quoted by the ABC put it at about 20 per cent of Tasmanian electricity use, more than all the state's households combined.
Of the 400MW, 104MW is contracted. Aurora Energy signed a three-year retail service agreement with Firmus covering the St Leonards site, ramping from August 2026 to full load in November 2026, with the price withheld as commercial in confidence. Firmus states in its Project Southgate FAQ that Bell Bay is subject to energy supply arrangements still being negotiated, and no supply arrangement for Wesley Vale has been announced.
Water is at the same stage. Firmus says rainwater harvesting and on-site storage are the primary water solution for Bell Bay, with other sources kept for resilience and contingency, and its project FAQ puts the site's cooling water at the equivalent of about 50 Australian households a year, drawn on the roughly ten days when the temperature passes 26 degrees. That is a design figure, set against the other Australian operators' policies in June 2026. Tasmanian Irrigation said in July 2026 that it had given no undertaking to Firmus.
Figures in public circulation vary. Bell Bay appears as 288MW in Firmus's own FAQ and as about 300MW in press accounts. Ongoing roles at the site appear as more than 115 in the FAQ, with press accounts reaching about 144 by applying Firmus's published ratio of roughly half a full-time role per megawatt to 288MW. The build is costed at A$2.1 billion for Launceston and at A$2.7 billion in Infrastructure Minister Kerry Vincent's description of the whole programme.
George Town Council decides Bell Bay while submissions are open
The City of Launceston endorsed the St Leonards permit at a special meeting on 1 September 2025 and that site is under construction. Firmus and SUBCO announced Bernacchi-1, the state's first new subsea cable in more than two decades, on 2 June 2026. The Aurora contract reaches full load in November 2026. George Town Council deferred the Bell Bay decision at its meeting on 28 July 2026, with Mayor Greg Kieser saying the August meeting was likely and that the application appeared compliant with the planning act. Wesley Vale is with Latrobe Council. Submissions to the committee close on 21 September 2026.
The planning decisions in the programme are therefore being made by councils under a scheme the committee has been asked to examine. New South Wales did the same, reaching 60 facilities operating or under construction before its guidelines appeared. The national regulation and social licence argument turns on that same sequence.
A George Town or Latrobe planner assessing a 288MW AI factory works from the General Industrial zone standards, a 20-metre height limit and the ordinary use tests. South Australia would add SA Water sufficiency advice and a Technical Regulator certificate. New South Wales would add efficiency thresholds and a renewable purchase condition. The Tasmanian scheme leaves those judgements to the council.
What to watch
George Town Council is expected to return to the Bell Bay decision at a monthly meeting, having deferred it once. Submissions close on 21 September 2026, and the submitter list will show whether Hydro Tasmania, TasNetworks, Aurora Energy and the Office of the Tasmanian Economic Regulator put positions on the record. Those submissions are where the load allocation question gets answered.
Marinus Link reached financial close on 3 September 2025 with A$3.8 billion of Clean Energy Finance Corporation concessional finance, for a 750MW first stage targeting completion in 2030. Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean has said the Firmus proposal and the other Tasmanian data centre proposals, "if they get up", bring the Marinus Link business case into doubt. The committee's resource allocation question reaches the interconnector without naming it.
The Senate's Environment and Communications References Committee reports on artificial intelligence and data centres by 16 November 2026, and the Commonwealth has foreshadowed a mandatory national framework to replace the national expectations it published on 23 March 2026, which apply through prioritisation rather than law. Tasmania's committee reports into the same period.