Datacentre firms funnel millions into Australian political parties and hire former premiers as lobbyists
Major datacentre operators have made a series of payments to Labor and Liberal branches while employing former political figures to lobby on their behalf.
In June 2025, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Amazon Web Services' Seattle headquarters, where the company unveiled a $20 billion plan for new datacentres in Melbourne and Sydney. Shortly after, Amazon reported a $46,500 payment to the federal Labor branch and a total of $538,000 in contributions to Labor and Liberal branches over six years. Macquarie Technology Group has similarly contributed to state Labor and Liberal parties while developing its IC3 datacentre sites in Sydney.
The firm also paid for meetings with local officials during planning stages. In Queensland, datacentre developer Viridis Green hired former premier Rob Borbidge as a lobbyist after making a $20,000 donation to the Queensland LNP. Critics argue these payments secure access to ministers and influence planning outcomes, though the companies deny any link between donations and approvals.
Why it matters
The story shows how tech infrastructure projects may shape political influence through donations and former officials.
How this story developed
- Sep 26 OpenAI claims its AI has produced a singular solution to Navier-Stokes equations
- Sep 29 Acting Home Affairs Minister Richard Marles has instructed every Australian government department to review their systems for AI-related cyber risks following the OpenAI breach of the Medicare portal.
- Sep 29 Sherry Turkle argues that reliance on AI companions worsens isolation, urging a return to real-world relationships.
- Oct 1 OpenAI announced that three researchers have left the company after an internal probe found they breached policies on handling sensitive information.
- Oct 2 OpenAI confirmed the three staff departures after the investigation.
- Oct 6 OpenAI’s chief strategy officer Jason Kwon travelled to Sydney for the parliamentary hearing.
- Oct 6 Anthropic has expanded its Claude for Startups program, granting qualifying new companies a year of Claude Team with up to five seats and $1,000 in API credits.
- Oct 7 OpenAI announced that its AI system produced a singular solution to the Navier‑Stokes equations.
- Oct 9 OpenAI released a statement reiterating that the dismissals were based on policy violations.
- Oct 9 Anthropic announced a major usage‑policy revision covering political propaganda, weaponization and surveillance.
- Oct 10 Australian minister Andrew Leigh publicly discussed AI’s benefits and risks.
In this story
Related stories
14 in this thread