Today in Parliament, Abigail passed a motion for an order for papers seeking to expose the corporate influence, particularly from property developers, data centre and fossil fuel companies, that appear to be driving key decisions of the Minns Labor Government at the expense of communities and climate commitments.

Abigail said:

I move:

That, under standing order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 14 days of the date of passing of this resolution the following documents, excluding any documents previously returned under an order of the House, created since 5 April 2023 in the possession, custody or control of the Premier, the Minister for Lands and Property, Minister for Multiculturalism, Minister for Sport and Minister for Jobs and Tourism, the Treasurer, the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, the Minister for Water, Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness, Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Youth, the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister for Building and Minister for Corrections, the Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Heritage, the Premier's Department, The Cabinet Office, the Treasury, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the Department of Communities and Justice (Homes NSW) or Investment NSW (including Investment Delivery Authority):

(a) all documents relating to meetings, correspondence, briefings, actions or policy proposals regarding the following:

(i) Mr Morris Iemma;

(ii) IPPA Trust;

(iii) Iemma Patterson Premier Advisory;

(iv) Third.i group;

(v) Third.i Residential;

(vi) ThirdAge;

(vii) Third.i Communities;

(viii) iNSiTU Housing;

(ix) OmniLiving;

(x) Hume Residential;

(xi) NestDeposit;

(xii) ThirdiIPropoerty Pty Ltd;

(xiii) Urban property group;

(xiv) Landmark Group;

(xv) Growthbuilt;

(xvi) Data centre policy;

(xvii) Public Accountability and Works Committee inquiry into Data Centres;

(xviii) Anthropic;

(xix) OpenAI;

(xx) Meta;

(xxi) Amazon;

(xxii) Google;

(xxiii) Alphabet;

(xxiv) Microsoft;

(xxv) Next;

(xxvi) CDC Data Centres;

(xxvii) Airtrunk;

(xxviii) Goodman group;

(xxix) Firmus;

(xxx) Blackstone;

(xxxi) Edge Centres;

(xxxii) Macquarie Data Centres;

(xxxiii) Equinix;

(xxxiv) AIMS Capital Management Ltd;

(xxxv) Lane Cove DC Alliance;

(xxxvi) GreenSquare DC Pty Ltd;

(xxxvii) Microsoft Datacenter (Australia) Pty Ltd;

(xxxviii) Lehr Consultants International (Australia) Pty Ltd;

(xxxix) KNBDC SYD4 Pty Ltd;

(xl) STACK Infrastructure Australia Pty Ltd;

(xli) Stockland;

(xlii) Northstar Public Affairs Pty Ltd;

(xliii) PremierNational Pty Ltd;

(xliv) Barton Deakin Pty Limited;

(xlv) Government Relations Australia Advisory Pty Ltd;

(xlvi) Hawker Britton Group;

(xlvii) TG Public Affairs Pty Ltd;

(xlviii) SLING & STONE;

(xlix) Pyne & Partners;

(l) Principle Advisory Pty Ltd;

(li) SEC Newgate Pty Ltd; and

(lii) CMAX Advisory.

(b) any legal or other advice regarding the scope or validity of this order of the House created as a result of this order of the House.

This order for papers is, in part, an update to the order for papers that passed in this place in October last year. The devil works hard, but property developers' lobbyists work harder, storming the halls of the Minns Labor Government. It is only prudent that we get an update to see what new lobbying has taken place by a few of our favourite lobbyists and their companies. There have been a number of interesting decisions taken by the Labor Government regarding development approvals, exemptions and general policy approaches that seem to benefit some of those clients of lobbyists, including Morris Iemma, and we think they deserve a bit of scrutiny. Ultimately, the point of the order for papers is to get a handle on the extent of corporate influence and commercial priorities that are guiding decisions of the Minns Labor Government.

The people of New South Wales are losing faith that this Labor Government is making decisions in the interests of the people and not doing favours for mates and fawning over the big end of town, hoping to land members a comfy retirement. It is for that reason that the order for papers expands on the scope of the previous order for papers regarding lobbyists by including data centres explicitly in its scope. In the previous order, we saw meeting notes from a meeting between the Treasurer and Michael Photios, lobbying on behalf of NextDC in October 2024. It appears that Mr Photios, on behalf of NextDC, was lobbying for changes to how the department of planning treats development applications for data centres. Apparently, the department of planning had been rejecting planning requests for data centres because of housing targets in areas zoned for transport oriented development [TOD]. That was amid discussion about the impact of data centre developments in North Ryde and Macquarie Park.

We then very swiftly saw the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces insisting in the media that there was no ban on data centres in Macquarie Park. What do you know! All of a sudden, the Government announced the Investment Delivery Authority. Who would have guessed? NextDC's S5 Data Centre and Innovation Hub is on the list of IDA projects, bang in the middle of a TOD. Greenpeace recently made clear the pernicious influence of the fossil-powered data centre industry in its report Energy Vampires: the AI data centres draining Australia. The report finds that the frenzied rollout of AI data centres in Australia is rushing through massive new projects that will derail Australia's energy transition unless the Government urgently intervenes, and that there are early signs of a gas boom in Australia fuelled by data centres, which will come with massive, nationally significant climate costs. I forced the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to admit that, way back in 2024, it had formally warned the Minister for Climate Change, the Hon. Penny Sharpe, that data centre developments were going to directly imperil us meeting our legislated emissions reduction targets. After hearing that advice, the New South Wales Labor Government decided to put its foot on the accelerator.

The reality of a data centre boom, enabled by fossil fuels, is playing out in New South Wales right now. The Government has opened western New South Wales for fracking, including in the largest freshwater supply in Australia, the Great Artesian Basin, while reducing application fees for petroleum exploration licences by 98 per cent. It is impossible not to see the corporate influence in those decisions. We know how proficient the fossil fuel industry is at currying favour with the establishment political parties, which gladly accept their political donations. The climate impacts of those projects must be paramount. Right now, the Labor Government is choosing big tech and fossil fuel industries, not community health, safety and wellbeing, and is locking us into a fossil-fuel-intensive, climate-disastrous future. We deserve to see a small glimpse of what is going on in the backroom deals and arrangements. For that reason, I encourage all members to support the order for papers.

Motion agreed to.

Read the full transcript in Hansard here.

3 June 2026