00:01Two chief executives selling their plan to build data centres in northern Tasmania in
00:07the face of a wary community response.
00:10What do you make of the feedback that you've had Tim Rosenfield in the last three weeks?
00:14Definitely we saw that community needed more information and that's crystal clear.
00:20Firmus Technologies has lodged development applications to build data centres at Bell
00:25Bay near Georgetown and Wesley Vale near La Trobe.
00:29It's already building a data centre, which it calls an AI factory, at St Leonard's on
00:35Launceston's outskirts.
00:37The company estimates the three facilities will create more than 200 ongoing jobs.
00:42By building an AI factory or multiple AI factories in northern Tasmania, we think that we'll be
00:48actually a net, I guess, attractor of young people.
00:54The co-CEOs today responded to community concerns about the data centre's power and
01:00water needs and potential noise impacts.
01:03We're using less water than one restaurant uses in a year.
01:07Between one to two kilometres away, it's less than the noise of which you would walk into
01:12a library.
01:12The Tasmanian Greens have called for a moratorium on all AI and data facilities until more guardrails
01:20can be put in place.
01:21A petition calling for the same has attracted more than 6,000 signatures and despite assurances
01:27from Firmus Technologies, residents living near the proposed data centres also want more
01:33oversight.
01:33There's a real sense of fear of the unknown and the feeling is that we're just walking off
01:39into the wild, wild west.
01:41Joe Zadrovec and Anne-Marie Bastion live across the river from the proposed Bell Bay data centre.
01:47They are not reassured by the company's statements.
01:51It's a massive building and it's sitting right on top of a pristine waterway.
01:59Community members who Firmus Technologies may struggle to win over.
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