Firmus Bell Bay AI Data Centre - Major Project Assessment

Ms BURNET question to MINISTER for HOUSING and PLANNING, Mr VINCENT

[10.15 a.m.]

Your government's 2020 major projects pathway requires that a project meets two of three criteria: one, significant impact on a region's economy, environment, or social fabric; two, strategic importance to a region; or three, significant scale and complexity. Minister Jaensch said projects that have the potential for substantial impact should be assessed by independent expert panels. The Firmus Bell Bay data centre is a $2.7 billion 288-megawatt facility, a scale you've called staggering, yet when asked why it wasn't escalated to a major project, you said it did not tick all the boxes. Minister, which two of the three statutory criteria does Bell Bay fail?

ANSWER

There was no application at all. Thank you for the question. When you think through it, there was no application or communication from the councils to assess it. The planning scheme is very strong in this area and there are options, as I explained yesterday. However, the situation is that the council is the appropriate place for this to be dealt with and they are the appropriate people to deal with it.

There is flexibility there to do different things, but do you really want political interference in some of these decisions because, once again, we touched on the awkwardness that you start to get if you start to pull, shake, take out and throw things into the political arena. We all want the system to stay strong in local government and I see no reason at all why that can't happen.

We can all pull lines out of various acts and different parts of the legislation to twist it to how we'd like it to be assessed and everything, but at this stage it still firmly sits with George Town or Latrobe Council and that's where I believe it should be until I'm told anything different. Thank you.

Supplementary Question

Ms BURNET - Thank you, minister, for that answer, but you and your government has been quoted as saying that these projects don't meet the major projects guidelines. Do you stand by that?

Mr VINCENT - I stand by the fact that the planning scheme is still strong and it is being assessed where it should be at the moment, and that's by the council. Once again, we can pull various lines out and say this could be looked at this way or that way, but at the moment there's been no request from councils to assess it any differently. They know their role in this and they want to keep that role. If the community is strong about this, regardless of whether it's for or against, that's where it should be assessed and that's where it is. Thank you.