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Powerful companies seeking to invest billions of dollars in data centres in NSW are refusing to appear at an inquiry into the controversial industry, raising concerns about the power of state parliament after a court ruling stripped it of the ability to compel witnesses to attend hearings.
The NSW public accountability and works committee inquiry was convened in late January to consider the scale and trajectory of data centre development, the associated impact on the state’s energy network, and the use of “state significant” planning pathways to fast track these proposals.
But the inquiry has been hamstrung by a number of transnational companies either declining or not responding to invitations from the committee to provide evidence. They include Blackstone, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and AirTrunk, a global data centre company. Companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google and NEXTDC have not responded to requests to appear.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey also turned down an invitation to attend a hearing on May 8. Housing Minister Rose Jackson has declined to attend but said she did so because of a lack of notice, while Energy Minister Penny Sharpe declined to appear because of a schedule clash.
The decisions followed a landmark decision in the NSW Court of Appeal in late December. James Cullen, chief of staff to Premier Chris Minns, successfully argued that state parliament should not have the power to compel ministerial staff to appear before inquiries. The decision to rule the 124-year-old laws invalid has gutted the ability of upper house committees to call any witnesses, given that there is now no consequence for not attending.
The parliament has appealed the ruling in the High Court.
Since then, the Coalition and crossbench in the upper house have attempted to reintroduce the powers through legislation. The Parliamentary Evidence Amendment Bill passed through the upper house in mid-March but has been stymied by the government in the Legislative Assembly since.
The impasse has resulted in a rebellious upper house resorting to tacking the bill onto all government legislation, otherwise known as “poison pilling” Labor’s agenda. Those efforts were partially wound back during the first sitting week of May.
The government has approved 20 state significant development applications for data centre projects since 2019, and a further 15 projects are in the development pipeline (35 overall). Of these 35 projects, 18 are located in western Sydney. There are 90 data centres operating in NSW, with the value of data centre investments reaching $2.6 billion in 2024-25, growing 65 per cent a year on average over the past three years.
Data centres’ demand for power, driven by large technology companies and artificial intelligence developers, was being vastly underestimated by the market, AGL Energy chief executive Damien Nicks said on Wednesday. The energy required would not be met by the existing pipeline of solar generation and battery storage, he warned.
In comments to the Herald, NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said Cullen’s success on a “technical legal point” was having real life consequences and “weakening” parliament. She said that Minns had once been the “great warrior of integrity in politics” who called for integrity to be placed “at the heart of all your decisions and actions”.
“NSW parliamentary inquiries have historically been an important way in our state to uncover wrongdoing, hold governments to account and ensure the most powerful people must front up and answer to your elected representatives,” Sloane said.
“Nobody wins when government is not accountable, and we have seen too often in this state how corruption and wrongdoing thrive without sunlight.”
In mid-March, James O’Brien, the facilities director at Honeywell, a company subcontracted by Newcastle’s Calvary Mater Hospital, declined to attend an inquiry probing mould and maggot issues at the hospital. In communications to the parliament, he cited the Court of Appeal decision in December.
“The practical effect of that decision is that a witness cannot be compelled to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry,” a lawyer for Mr O’Brien wrote.
For years, upper house committees had exposed corruption and government failings while shining a light into sectors in need of greater regulation, said Abigail Boyd, a Greens MP and chair of the data centre inquiry. The government had been “enthusiastic to contribute” to the inquiry after it was announced, but that attitude had changed.
“But in the wake of the Cullen case, we suddenly find ourselves with a long and growing list of witness declines and submissions from industry and government that were promised and never materialised,” Boyd said.
On May 1, Data Centres Australia, a peak body representing 86 per cent of operational capacity across Australia, provided evidence at the data centre inquiry’s first hearing. The organisation’s spokeswoman, Belinda Dennett, denied there was an agreement between members, including AirTrunk, AWS, CDC, Microsoft and NEXTDC, not to participate in the inquiry.
“Members make their own decisions,” she said. “But we’re pretty new, and it’s the first time, I guess, many companies have had a peak body to represent them.”
EY declined to comment. Blackstone, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services and AirTrunk did not respond to requests for comment.
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