Queensland is laying out the welcome mat for big tech.

At a speech to party faithful in July, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli made a pitch to billion-dollar data centre companies abroad looking to settle down in the Sunshine State: pick us, and no one will tell you what to do.

🤷What happened? In May, multiple Australian states and territories agreed to explore the idea of forcing data centres to pay for the power they use – and for that power to be renewable. 

Queensland, however, was not involved, its energy minister called the idea “underdeveloped.” 

Data centres face an energy reckoning, as Queensland looks the other way

The boom in demand for electricity is “contributing to higher emissions than anticipated”.

💰Energy: The Premier said his energy agnostic approach made him confident the Sunshine State will get a “level of investment in data centres.” 

🗣️“Only one state believes that the energy source for [data centres] should come from wherever it is best placed, not exclusively from one source of energy,” said Crisafulli.

According to the Australian Financial Review, throughout May the premier met with representatives from the tech industry including: 

  • Anthropic’s data centre transactions and leasing division Cyrus Aga.

  • Australian Data Centres chief executive Mark Pont.

  • Macquarie head of infrastructure and energy capital Ivan Varughese.

The premier’s office declined to comment on the meetings.

📝 The agenda: The current QLD Government has been on an anti-renewable energy vendetta since being elected in 2024. 

So far it has scrapped renewable energy targets and emissions reporting. 

In October 2025, it announced plans to extend the life of coal-fired power plants. 

⚡ Why it matters for your bill: Renewable energy, backed by batteries and other storage, remains the cheapest way to build new electricity generation, reconfirmed this week in the CSIRO’s newest GenCost report. 

⛏️ Old Coal: According to the Queensland Conservation Council, in the year to March, Queensland’s ageing coal power stations had 52 outages over the period from October 2025 - February 2026, including 47 unplanned breakdowns.

Those breakdowns mean Queenslanders have to rely on gas, the most expensive way of making electricity. 

Watch the National Account’s Archie Milligan below: 

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