Tuesday, 8 September 2026

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (13:00): (2581) My question is for the Minister for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy. My constituent resides in West Footscray. Her family experiences broken sleep and other adverse health impacts caused by the hyperscale data centre across the road. Reflecting on the light, sound and air pollution spewed out by this sinister building 24 hours a day, they also wonder what happens to the spent hardware generated by the data centre. As data centre processing infrastructure typically has a life of three to five years, we are looking at around a quarter of a million tonnes of e-waste generated over the next five years. Data Centres Australia have said that e-waste belongs to the customer, conveniently passing the buck. My constituent asks: how will the government deal with the mountains of spent technology generated by data centres?