Until recently, data centers attracted relatively little public attention. They were largely treated as invisible pieces of digital infrastructure: essential but rarely discussed outside technical and industry circles.

But over the past 12 months across Australia, data centers have become the subject of intense political debate, community opposition, planning disputes and parliamentary inquiries.

Questions are being raised about how much electricity and water they use, where they should be built, who should pay for the infrastructure needed to support them, and whether Australia benefits from their continued expansion.

These questions are feeding into government policy. Following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s speech at the University of Sydney in July, a National Cabinet meeting in August reaffirmed plans to legislate nationally consistent mandatory standards for large data centers by early next year. These will include requirements around their energy, water and land use.

So how did a piece of digital infrastructure that once attracted relatively little public attention become such a prominent policy issue? Data centers themselves are not new. What has changed is their scale, purpose and the resources required to support their growth.

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