PM Blinks: Albanese Retreats on Datacentres as Premiers Flex Muscle at National Cabinet

National cabinet agreed to develop nationally consistent data centre standards from early 2027, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese retreated from Energy Minister Chris Bowen's hardline mandate that new data centres must add more renewable electricity to the grid than they consume. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli secured an exemption to power data centres with coal and gas, arguing his state's publicly owned generators give it a unique energy mix. The...