Trade and Business Minister Robyn Cahill, who pitched the Northern Territory as the “data centre capital of the globe”, was in Texas last month on a trade mission when the state’s Republican Governor ordered a sudden moratorium on data centres, citing the need to investigate environmental impacts and ordering no further government incentives because “Texans must come first”, but Ms Cahill’s office has refused to say what she learned on the taxpayer-funded trip.
Ms Cahill’s office issued a statement on September 19, announcing she was on her way to Texas to lead the trade delegation made up of 24 Territory “businesses and industry bodies” to unspecified cities, which was celebrated as providing the local NT businesses with contacts to help them get contracts in the “expanding Beetaloo Sub-basin onshore gas industry”.
Hopefully these questions are put to Minister Cahill in Question Time when Parliament sits next week. While they’re at it an MLA could ask the Attorney General some specific questions about the appointment process for the CE of her department, as reported by the NT Independent last week.
Probably ok to have these data centers built after due consideration BUT they pay for water, they pay for power and NO government grants, subsidies or funds put in.