I rise to speak this evening about the petition that I was able to table this morning on behalf of more than 10,000 people who signed it. This was an incredibly significant petition, one of the largest e‑petitions in the history of Tasmania with the e‑petitions that are up on the website, and it was a real honour to be able to present that on behalf of all the people who signed and I want to pay tribute to the many people in the community who helped make this petition so big and, in particular, I want to thank the principal petitioner, Jamie Melvin, who brought the petition originally.
But there’s been a huge community action that has happened across the state, but particularly in the north of the state, where AI factories have been approved by councils and where there is some of the greatest concern about the impact of AI factories on the state.
I’d like to mention here also some of the other people who’ve been involved in that campaign, and particularly Anne Marie Bastian and her partner, Joe Zadravek. They were some of the earliest people to become aware of what was happening at Bell Bay and in their community and become concerned and they started a petition on Change.org also, which is currently sitting at 6000 signatures.
I think the fact that there are two huge petitions that have been running and have gathered so many signatures is an indication of the level of concern in the community. And members of the community have every right to be concerned, because what’s happened is that an AI factory has been approved in St Leonards without people being aware of it and then, in Bell Bay, the George Town Council approved the development application from Firmus for the AI factory at Bell Bay and so many people in the community wanted to have a say in that or they wanted to know that there was a way of their concerns being heard.
Unfortunately, the way the planning processes work in this state meant that their submissions couldn’t really be taken into consideration, which is a huge shame, unfortunate, and it means that many of the community’s voices have not been heard. Because of the lack of opportunity for people to have a say in planning processes, there have been a number of AI factory and facility forums that have been held in northern Tasmania and I’ve attended four forums and community meetings.
The first was in Exeter with the Tamar Valley Business Association running a meeting, and that was attended by close to 200 people. There was a George Town community forum that had close to 100 people in it. The Greens, Ms Badger and I ran a community town hall that had 150 people at it and then there was a community event recently in Exeter that had around 100 people at it also.
So, there have been ongoing concerns that have been raised. What struck me is that people who are concerned about the AI factories are really well informed. They have local concerns, but they understand what this is about and they’re not just not just running on conspiracy theories, but they have really well informed concerns that get to the detail of data facilities of AI factories and the impact that they might have.
They care deeply about their communities. Some of them are considering selling their homes. I know around Rowella, where the Bell Bay facility will be less than two kilometres away from them across the river, they’re so concerned that many of them will sell their farms or think they will need to sell their farms. They don’t just care about their own property, they also care about what this means for the state with our water and with our power use.
So, what the community are asking for is that they be heard, that they be respected. They want information, they want protections, they want to know the government is looking out for them but that’s not what is happening. What we have is a government who are ignoring the voice of the people and, as it turns out, today Labor haven’t listened either. They voted against the moratorium that over 10,000 people asked for in that position.
So, the draft expectations that the minister has talked about today, they’re too little too late for those communities who already have AI facilities approved in their area. That’s a terrible situation for them to be in, and the Greens will continue to back the community’s calls for transparency, their calls for information. We’ll continue to back them being included in decision‑making and ensuring that protection of their interests is central to the state’s assessments of AI factories. That’s what people want. They want to know that they are being looked out for.
