{"id":25384,"date":"2026-10-11T14:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T12:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/11\/donations-to-major-parties-and-an-ex-premier-as-a-lobbyist-how-datacentres-play-the-political-game-in-australia\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T14:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T12:37:17","slug":"donations-to-major-parties-and-an-ex-premier-as-a-lobbyist-how-datacentres-play-the-political-game-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/11\/donations-to-major-parties-and-an-ex-premier-as-a-lobbyist-how-datacentres-play-the-political-game-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Donations to major parties and an ex-premier as a lobbyist: how datacentres play the political game in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As governments face community backlash for fast-tracking developments, big tech\u2019s financial contributions face renewed scrutiny<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">new political email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On 14 June 2025, Anthony Albanese stood inside an enormous sphere of glass and steel, surrounded by 40,000 plants from around the world. His mind was firmly fixed on datacentres. The prime minister was in the Seattle headquarters of Amazon Web Services. He stood alongside the company\u2019s chief executive, Matt Garman, who outlined a $20bn plan to build <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pm.gov.au\/media\/press-conference-seattle\">datacentres in Melbourne and Sydney<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to a travelling press pack, Garman was emphatic that Australia was \u201cincredibly important and a great market\u201d for the world\u2019s biggest datacentre company.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/aug\/28\/politics-really-newsletter-guardian-australia-free-best-daily-auspol-email-subscribe?CMP=copyembed\">Sign up for Guardian Australia\u2019s Politics, really newsletter here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/oct\/12\/donations-lobbyists-how-datacentres-play-the-political-game-in-australia\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9cffdd1522b2660eb6278cc9da3e34878eda3f47\/688_0_6880_5504\/master\/6880.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=7f420f451fb3c4ce0c55250c11766a15\" title=\"Donations to major parties and an ex-premier as a lobbyist: how datacentres play the political game in Australia\" \/>As governments face community backlash for fast-tracking developments, big tech\u2019s financial contributions face renewed scrutiny<br \/>\nGet our new political email, free app or daily news podcast<br \/>\nOn 14 June 2025, Anthony Albanese stood inside an enormous sphere of glass and steel, surrounded by 40,000 plants from around the world. His mind was firmly fixed on datacentres. The prime minister was in the Seattle headquarters of Amazon Web Services. He stood alongside the company\u2019s chief executive, Matt Garman, who outlined a $20bn plan to build datacentres in Melbourne and Sydney.<br \/>\nSpeaking to a travelling press pack, Garman was emphatic that Australia was \u201cincredibly important and a great market\u201d for the world\u2019s biggest datacentre company.<br \/>\nSign up for Guardian Australia\u2019s Politics, really newsletter here Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As governments face community backlash for fast-tracking developments, big tech\u2019s financial contributions face renewed scrutiny Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast On 14 June 2025, Anthony Albanese stood inside an enormous sphere of glass and steel, surrounded by 40,000 plants from around the world. His mind was firmly fixed on &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/11\/donations-to-major-parties-and-an-ex-premier-as-a-lobbyist-how-datacentres-play-the-political-game-in-australia\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Donations to major parties and an ex-premier as a lobbyist: how datacentres play the political game in Australia<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":25385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25384"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}