Australia's federal government is preparing new rules for datacentres that would require developers to avoid pushing up power prices, bring their own renewable energy to the grid, minimise water use and site facilities away from homes, schools and farmland. Because the rules will not be retrospective, any project approved before the legislation passes next year would only need to meet existing state or territory laws, prompting concern that developers will rush to secure approvals before the tougher regime takes effect, and fuelling calls, including from the Greens and local campaigners, for a moratorium on new approvals in the meantime.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hopes to secure national cabinet agreement on the federal rules at a meeting on Wednesday. The energy market operator Aemo reported 225 datacentres in development, with electricity demand from them forecast to grow from 5 to 34 terawatt hours by 2036, though over 40% of projects listed in 2025 have since stalled or dropped off. One test case is Project Mars, a 90MW, 22,000sqm datacentre proposed by Goodman Group near Sydney's Lane Cove River, which would draw 3.5ML of water daily and relies mostly on existing power with only limited solar capacity, drawing strong local opposition and warnings from an urban planning academic that fast-tracked approvals could carry political costs for state governments.