Labor to fast-track approvals for massive data centres in NSW

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Major renewable energy and tech projects such as wind farms and data centres will receive fast-tracked planning approval from the NSW government under a new authority aimed at speeding up major commercial investments into the state.

Treasurer Daniel Mookhey will announce on Monday the opening of expressions of interest for the first round of the government’s new Investment Delivery Authority, which will give expedited approvals of major projects valued at more than $1 billion.

It will also be used to assess hotel developments valued at more than $200 million.

Advanced economies are pushing hard to host major data centres.

Modelled off the government’s Housing Delivery Authority, which fast-tracks approval for property developers on major residential projects, the IDA was announced in the June budget and will begin assessing projects from this week.

Mookhey will on Monday announce the opening of expressions of interest for the IDA, designed as a “gateway” for major non-residential projects, at the National Tech Summit in Sydney.

The authority, to be made up of a four-person panel of senior bureaucrats, will be focused on projects which “build the digital infrastructure that will power the second quarter of this century”, Mookhey will say. As with the HDA, applicants will be required to demonstrate that they can start development quickly.

“Round one will focus on projects related to data centres, technology projects, renewable and energy security projects - along with the hotel projects we need to grow our visitor economy,” Mookhey will say in the speech, seen by the Herald.

The new authority was not a “rubber stamp”, but a “priority lane”, Mookhey will say, giving applicants access to a dedicated planning assessment team to hasten approvals.

“So if you’re building a data centre or a wind farm, the IDA will provide specialist government support to fast-track those initiatives,” Mookhey will tell the audience.

The IDA was announced in the budget after Mookhey said he identified that of the 25 highest-value projects in the planning portal, 25 were renewable energy projects and four were data centres. He will say the IDA would be a “work-around to a planning system that needs more thorough reform”.

“But for the moment, we want major investment in things like data centres which are the key to powering innovation – and this is how we are going to get them,” Mookhey will say.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey in his ministerial office.

The tech industry, including Atlassian co-founder and Tech Council chair Scott Farquhar, has been lobbying for Australia to embrace data centres as demand increases along with the rise of artificial intelligence.