Family First's Jane Foreman says The Age's report on the proposed $1.1 billion Campbellfield data centre (9 August) is a textbook repeat of the pattern Family First exposed in July — residents kept in the dark, approvals fast-tracked around normal planning checks, and a community left to carry the risk for a handful of jobs.
Ms Foreman says The Age's reporting shows Singaporean-backed developer Zerra DC's "Project Dune" campus, proposed for the former Ford Broadmeadows Assembly Plant site in Campbellfield, was submitted directly to Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny under the Development Facilitation Program — a fast-track process that bypasses Hume City Council and removes residents' right to challenge the decision at VCAT. Once complete, the six-stage, 336-megawatt campus would store more than 7 million litres of diesel for backup generators, with later stages built as close as 260 metres from homes on Barry Road, 290 metres from residential streets in Dallas, and 130 metres from a medical centre. Resident Anastasia Drapaniotis told The Age most of her neighbours had no idea the development existed until a vague notice arrived giving them just four days to respond.
"This is exactly what Family First warned would happen in July, when we exposed how NextDC's M3 facility went up 14 metres from homes in West Footscray," said Mrs Foreman. "Once again, Victorians are finding out about a data centre on their doorstep from a four-day notice or a newspaper story, not from a government that is supposed to represent them. This isn't bad luck, it's a planning system built to keep residents in the dark until it's too late to object."
Family First says the Campbellfield project also confirms its warning that these campuses generate minimal local jobs for the scale of land and risk involved. Zerra DC's own application documents show stage one would require just 49 staff, growing to 255 across all six stages over a 12-year build, on a site that employed almost 5,200 people at the height of Ford's manufacturing operations in an area with double the state's unemployment rate. Hume councillors this week considered a motion for a moratorium on new data centre approvals — the same call Family First made in July — while local Labor MP Kathleen Matthews-Ward has said she does not believe the site is suitable for a data centre at all.
"When the local council and the local Labor MP are both raising red flags, that tells you this isn't a fringe concern, it's common sense the Allan-Carroll Government keeps ignoring," said Mrs Foreman. "A site that once gave nearly 5,200 families a wage is set to hand out 49 jobs and 7 million litres of diesel next to people's homes, and the government's only response is a planning pathway that cuts residents out of the decision entirely. Family First called for a moratorium and mandatory consultation in July. Every week this Government sits on its hands is another data centre approved with no real say for the people who live next to it."
Family First's candidate for Northern Metropolitan Region, Imad Hirmiz, says the Campbellfield proposal lands squarely in the patch he is campaigning to represent — and is exactly why local voices need to be in Spring Street after November.
"Campbellfield, Dallas and Broadmeadows are in the heart of Northern Metro, and it's the families here who'll be living next to seven million litres of diesel and a fenced-off industrial site for the next twelve years, not the Minister who signed off on it," said Mr Hirmiz. "This community already lost thousands of jobs when Ford closed its gates, and now it's being told forty-nine jobs and a mountain of diesel tanks is a fair trade. If Northern Metro elects me in November, I'll be fighting for the real consultation and real protections this community was denied over Project Dune."
Family First is repeating its July call for an immediate moratorium on new data centre approvals near residential areas, mandatory community consultation for any project within one kilometre of homes, and independent cumulative health and environmental impact assessments before Minister Kilkenny signs off on Project Dune or any other data centre. Ms Foreman says the growing list of communities blindsided by these approvals is exactly why Victoria needs Family First in the Legislative Council after November — to force real consultation before the bulldozers arrive, not after.
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