The Green Party is asking for a one-year pause on approving new AI data centres in New Zealand, saying the public has not had a chance to discuss whether they want them.

A data centre is a large building packed with powerful computers that store and process information — including the kind of computing that artificial intelligence needs. Think of it as a massive server farm running around the clock.

The Greens' policy, launched at the party's annual meeting alongside its slogan 'For all of us', takes aim at a planned facility in Makarewa, just north of Invercargill. The Data Grid project is a $3.5 billion development that would become the second-biggest electricity user in New Zealand once it is running (RNZ).

Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Data Grid centre was "consented behind closed doors." She said it would use about 6% of New Zealand's current electricity — the equivalent of a town the size of Hamilton switching on all at once. The site covers 49 hectares and has permission to draw more than 600,000 litres of groundwater every day (RNZ; Datagrid; Venture Insights).

Swarbrick warned the data centre would push up power prices for everyone and could cost jobs in other industries. She also pointed to overseas examples where data centres damaged local water supplies, including fresh water turning to sludge (RNZ).

Data Grid has rejected the water concerns. The company said its cooling system is "closed loop," meaning the water stays within the system and does not contaminate anything. Data Grid said 1,200 jobs would be created during construction (RNZ).

Mercury, a major electricity company in New Zealand, has invested $53 million in Data Grid. Mercury CEO Stu Hamilton said the centre would support up to 300 ongoing jobs, plus further jobs building the power stations needed to supply it (RNZ).

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called the Greens' position "alarmist." Swarbrick said Luxon "agreed with all of the things that we were saying about the impacts on communities, on energy, and on the local water supply" but would not introduce rules to manage them (RNZ).

The Greens also worry that planned law changes will make it easier for future data centres to get approved. The party repeated its call for a one-year pause in a separate statement about a bill to protect artists from outdated copyright laws, which passed its first reading in Parliament (Greens; Greens).

Locals near the Makarewa site have also raised concerns about noise (The Guardian).

There is growing commercial interest in Aotearoa as a place to build data centres. A 2026 report by Boston Consulting Group looked at the potential benefits for New Zealand, including jobs, a new export industry, and flow-on effects (BCG). The OECD's 2026 review of New Zealand found the economy is in the early stages of a recovery, helped by lower interest rates, steady exports, and a rebound in tourism (OECD).

The bigger picture is that this debate follows a pattern New Zealanders may recognise: fast development versus taking time to think it through, local jobs versus national energy and water security, and private companies moving faster than the rules that govern them. What makes this case unusual is the size of one facility compared to the whole country's electricity supply. A single data centre using 6% of New Zealand's electricity is a major addition. The counter-argument — that new demand will encourage new power generation — also carries risk for an electricity market that is already stretched.

There is a political question too. If law changes do make it easier to approve future data centres, the Greens' proposed pause would need the Government's support to actually take effect. With Luxon calling their stance alarmist, that support looks unlikely. The Greens' approach, then, seems less about changing the law right now and more about making a public stand before more consents are approved — using Data Grid as the example of what happens when large-scale data centres arrive without clear rules in place.