2026-10-23
The Victorian Greens have hailed a major victory for community resistance to data centres, after sustained opposition from West Footscray residents helped delay multibillion-dollar tech giant NextDC's expansion plans, sending its share price plummeting.
The Greens say the extraordinary development shows the power of communities standing up to big corporations, and have renewed calls for an immediate moratorium on new data centres, a halt to NextDC's West Footscray expansion and compensation for affected residents.
Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson for AI and Data Centres, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
"A handful of determined residents in Melbourne's west have just brought a multibillion-dollar tech giant to its knees. That's the power of ordinary people standing together.
"Labor rolled out the red carpet for big tech. The community pulled it out from under them.
“Several residents with their cars and wheelie bins did what Labor wouldn’t: they made a big tech company stop and listen.
"Labor's new data centre rules don't even apply to the projects already in the pipeline, including NextDC's proposed expansion. It's a loophole big enough to drive a data centre through.
"The Greens are calling for an immediate moratorium on new data centres, no expansion of NextDC in West Footscray, and meaningful compensation for residents whose lives and homes have been impacted by the existing facility."