National Cabinet Meeting: GST hostility dominates talks over data centres and power supply measures

Tensions over the GST carve-up have overshadowed a meeting of state and territory leaders where the Prime Minister appears to have given concessions on new national standards for data centres.

Ahead of Wednesday’s National Cabinet meeting, the Albanese Government was pushing to impose uniform rules which would require data centre developers to bring their own renewable energy and set other parameters, including on water usage.

Speaking at the conclusion of what he described as “excellent” talks in Sydney, Anthony Albanese said he expected to have draft legislation ready by the end of the year which accommodated differing positions from various states.

“The Commonwealth will legislate, and we have the power under the corporation’s power to do so, and I’m very confident that we’ll move forward with every single jurisdiction making a difference,” the PM said.

“We want to make sure that in attracting investment, we don’t have eight different systems operating around the country, and that’s why we came to a common position, which recognises that all states aren’t exactly the same”.

Conservative governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory are opposed to the renewables-focused standards and want to be able to use surplus energy produced from coal and gas to power data centres.

Queensland’s Liberal-National Party Premier David Crisafulli praised the “open-mindedness” of the Commonwealth’s approach, saying his state had a “really big point of difference” on the matter.

“We own distribution, transmission, generation, and that enables us to control that energy mix, and we’ve done that well. And our energy plan shows that.”

Earlier the opposition’s infrastructure and cities spokesman James McGrath hit out at Labor’s “bonkers” data centre ideology as being “anti-Queensland”.

“Why should ideology be forced down Queenslanders’ necks? We are not opposed to national rules, but we also believe in competitive federalism,” the Queensland Senator told News24 on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister did not respond directly to a question about whether any state premiers raised objections during the meeting in Perth this week to pledge to keep current GST arrangements in place, which are strongly favoured by Western Australia.

An interim report by the Productivity Commission this month found the current GST carve-up was a “costly mistake” and recommended it be scrapped.

“I think that Western Australia deserves its fair share. People are aware of my position on that, but I support every state and territory,” Mr Albanese said sitting next to WA’s Premier Roger Cook, who is the current Chair of the Council of Australian Federation.

Repeatedly challenged by a journalist from Sydney’s Daily Telegraph about whether he would stand up for his own home state of New South Wales, the Prime Minister responded: “We’ll continue to work with every state and territory”.

“My state and this bloke here, the Premier of New South Wales, I’ll be working hard to make sure he stays the Premier after March next year. And under my Government, under my Government, New South Wales will always get support,” Mr Albanese said.

On Wednesday the Productivity Commission hit back at criticism from Western Australia’s Premier who last week described the agency as “east coast clowns” following the release of its GST recommendations.

One of the co-authors of the PC’s report, Angela Jackson, has now hit back at Premier Cook’s recent comments saying he has undermined the body’s integrity, and “crossed a line”.

“We are used to public debate. In fact, we welcome it at the Productivity Commission . . . it makes our work stronger,” said Ms Jackson.

“Our view is that a line was crossed in terms of the nature of those comments from the Western Australian premier.”

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King, who is from WA, this week also attacked the Productivity Commission’s interim report which recommended Labor wind back the GST deal.