The Green Party is calling for a one-year moratorium on consenting new "AI data centres", saying councils are signing off on the projects behind closed doors.
Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick announced the policy on Q+A this morning, after hundreds of people gathered in Southland to protest against a consented data centre.
"There is real concern out there," she said.
"Let's take a moment, let's have a common sense think about who they're actually benefitting, and whether New Zealanders want them in the first place."
She said the pause was not a ban, as a "one-year pause gives us time to get this right."
"This is not a ban on data infrastructure. It's a pause on the most resource-intensive developments while New Zealanders get a say on what conditions they should meet," she said in a media release accompanying the policy announcement.
Swarbrick said the country had never been asked whether it wanted the facilities at all, stating that New Zealanders were entitled to "a national conversation".
"Right now, AI data centres can be consented behind closed doors, with no community input," the Greens co-leader said.
"If we are going to let these things be built, we should at least understand who is benefiting and ensure we protect our natural resources and communities. That's why the Greens are calling for a one-year pause, to allow intentional regulation to be developed."
A $3.5b project has been approved in Makarewa, 10 minutes north of Invercargill, with locals wanting answers. (Source: 1News)
The call comes four months after Datagrid's hyperscale data centre north of Invercargill was granted resource consent without public notification - the first New Zealand data centre approved that way. Swarbrick said the consenting itself was the problem.
"Currently, councils get to decide through their planning rules whether to consent these developments. These can be on a non-notified basis with no public input required."
National and ACT reject policy, Labour not committed
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejected the idea within hours of the announcement, telling reporters in Auckland he would not consider a pause.
"Data centres are critical for us going forward to add more value into our economy, to embrace more technology and innovation," Luxon said.
"It's also important that we come as we expand and open up more data centres in due course with some very good thinking and some good principles about how we do that.
"I think the way the Greens have positioned their statement, from what I've seen this morning, is quite alarmist."
Luxon said three data centres were due to come on stream in the next 12 months, and that any expansion would need to bring "additionality" to the electricity system.
"New Zealand — with a high renewables mix, with plenty of land, access to water, temperate climate — is a good place for data centres to be."
ACT MP Laura McClure speaking on Q+A also said her party wouldn't back a pause. Speaking on a political panel earlier today, Labour MP Arena Williams stopped short of backing the moratorium but said the rules needed to be right.
"We have to make sure that we have the rules right," she said.
"If the Greens are calling for a moratorium, they're also making the same points that we're hearing from National that where data centres are good for communities, they generate jobs, and they're not crowding out other electricity use from manufacturers, then they can be a good thing for the communities where they are situated."
Rules don't require renewable generation - Greens
Swarbrick said the current rules did not require operators to build their own renewable generation or use less water-intensive cooling, even where they could.
The Datagrid project promises to bring new jobs, with efficient technologies to combat concerns around water and electricity use. Some locals aren't so sure. (Source: Q and A)
"Some may argue these AI data centres could build their own renewable energy, or that they're increasingly using closed-loop water cooling systems. That may well be the case, but our current rules don't require any of those things," she said.
Pressed on Q+A that earthworks in Southland were due to start next month - meaning the policy would not beat the concrete there - Swarbrick said the aim was to stop before any further sites were consented.
"Let's stop before any further concrete is poured, before this genie gets out, because we cannot put it back in the bottle," she said.
"Anyone doing AI within their effectively hyperscale AI data centres, which are defined internationally as consuming the excess of 50 megawatts of power."
Asked about the fact that the Southland site was not purely an "AI data centre" but one that also stored and processed data - speaking to the separate issue of keeping New Zealand's data onshore - Swarbrick said the AI load was what set the facilities apart.
She said other countries were already moving, and New Zealand risked being left behind.
What other countries are doing
In the United States, New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered a statewide pause on new data centres drawing 50 megawatts or more on July 14, freezing state environmental permits for up to a year while officials work out how to measure the facilities' effects.
Across the Tasman, Australian PM Anthony Albanese announced large-scale data centres would face a legal obligation to underwrite new power supply, pay their full share of grid connection costs and cover any extra water infrastructure they require.
That legislation is not expected to pass until early 2027.
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