Queensland to centralize data centre approvals amid Western Downs mega-project

The Queensland government will take the planning and assessment of data centre applications away from local councils under a system set to be rolled out in coming weeks.

It comes as Australia's largest proposed data centre is planned for the Western Downs, 200 kilometres west of Brisbane, in an area rich in agriculture and coal seam gas wells.

The state government said the new planning framework would mirror its changes to renewable energy developments by requiring a social impact assessment and a community benefit agreement to be made with the local council before a development application was lodged.

Developers are increasingly eyeing sites across Queensland as locations for data centres to power artificial intelligence development due to the state's available land and capacity to connect to the energy grid.

Queensland is also yet to put in place dedicated planning for data centre infrastructure, unlike Victoria and New South Wales.

The state government said the changes would ensure a "consistent and transparent framework across the state".

"Many councils don't include data centres in their planning schemes, which creates confusion and inconsistency," the state government said in a statement.

"We will treat these projects no worse and no better than we do mining, renewables or tourism projects," it said.

"Any deals must be done with the backing of councils and communities."

'Non-negotiables' for Queensland

Premier David Crisafulli said data centre investment would need to create local jobs and drive down electricity bills.

"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," Mr Crisafulli said on Thursday.

"And if all of those can be done, and if the investment can be in driving down people's power bills and we create some jobs in the process, big tick."

The Western Downs Regional Council is in the process of assessing the $32 billion Western Downs Digital Park proposed on the site of a cattle feedlot.

International developer Zerra DC lodged plans for the hyper-scale computing project in August. Anthropic, the company behind artificial intelligence assistant Claude, has since signed on to lease the first of four planned buildings at the site.

While the Western Downs Regional Council says it has no firm timeframe for assessing the application, the developer wants the state government to step in to speed up the approvals process.

Zerra DC has applied for "prescribed process" status under state government rules which would allow Queensland's coordinator-general to take over the decision-making from the council.