The ACT senator is loudly pushing for a new tax on data centres, likening the rise of artificial intelligence to Australia’s fossil fuel boom. He wants the levy to mirror the 25% gas export tax he has recently championed, arguing that tech infrastructure should not escape a similar impost.
He highlights concerns about the heavy resource footprint of these facilities, especially their escalating use of water. The tension lies in the fact that he is personally positioned to benefit from the very sector he wants to tax.
On his own website, the senator warns that Australia must avoid repeating what he calls the “great gas scam” in the emerging AI infrastructure space. Data centres, he argues, consume vast amounts of electricity and water, with forecasts suggesting their water use could more than triple over the coming years.
He frames the proposed levy as a way to ensure multinational technology groups pay a fair price for accessing local land, energy, water and labour. The proposed model draws directly from the gas export tax structure, a push to treat digital infrastructure more like a traditional extractive industry.
Supporters of the senator’s stance say data centres already behave like resource-intensive industrial plants, using significant energy to power servers and additional electricity and water to keep them cool. They see a tax as a mechanism to offset environmental impacts and to capture extra revenue from global technology operators that build large facilities on Australian soil.
Sceptics, however, note the awkward optics created by the senator’s own share portfolio, which reportedly includes exposure to companies that stand to gain from the AI and data centre boom. That overlap prompts questions about how his personal investments align with his public campaign for tougher rules on the sector.
