A Greens’ motion ordering the Liberal Government to publicly reveal details and commitments made to Firmus, for their Tasmanian AI factory, has unanimously passed Parliament’s lower house.
During last year’s election, Premier Rockliff stood with Firmus and endorsed their plan for an AI factory. But the only information revealed to Tasmanians about any commitments made to the company since then has been from Firmus themselves, stating on ABC Radio they’d obtained a massive 104-megawatt power deal from Aurora.
Tasmania is the centre piece of Singaporean based company Firmus’ project Southgate – a multiple billion dollar roll out of AI factories across the country. Both the project and company have draw significant national media and community interest.
There are concerns about how the government’s deal with Firmus is going to impact the local energy grid, community, and environment, and Tasmanians deserve answers.
The Liberals have refused to answer questions about what funding or resourcing commitments have been made to Firmus, and if this was done during caretaker period. They seem to have no plans to put guard rails in place to ensure the rapidly expanding technology doesn’t do a disservice to the Tasmanian people or environment.
We moved a motion in Parliament, calling for the Liberals to reveal the funding and resourcing commitments they’ve made to Firmus, advice they’ve received about the company’s AI factory and water consumption agreement details.
Firmus’ project is either going to be significant risk, or opportunity, for the state, which is why it deserves a high degree of scrutiny and transparency.
With the lower house unanimously passing our motion, Tasmanians will finally start to see the Liberals plans for AI in this state.
