Emails between staff of NSW technology minister Anoulack Chanthivong reveal they removed the phrase "absolutely thrilled" from a press release welcoming OpenAI's Sydney office, after joking about a dystopian Skynet scenario. The emails, tabled in NSW parliament, show the minister's deputy chief of staff initially drafted: "The Minns Labor government is absolutely thrilled to welcome the news that OpenAI will open its first Australian office, right here in Sydney, later this year." A staffer replied: "I'm still convinced we're headed for a Skynet situation in the next 5 years so don't want to be on record endorsing any 'golden era'." The phrase was then changed to simply "welcomes the news."
Government Courting of OpenAI
Despite the caution, documents reveal the NSW government actively courted OpenAI before its decision. In a June last year meeting, Chanthivong was briefed to highlight Sydney as the top startup location in the southern hemisphere, attracting 65% of all venture capital in Australia, and home to Atlassian, Canva, and Afterpay. Talking points noted that 45% of all AI businesses in Australia are in NSW, and major US tech companies like Google, Microsoft, Meta, AWS, and IBM have Sydney headquarters.
Datacentre Concerns and Environmental Impact
The state government is developing a datacentre strategy to support AI growth but has not announced a release date. Environment minister Penny Sharpe told a NSW inquiry that Sydney is a "highly desirable location" and she is not concerned about falling behind Victoria or South Australia. However, documents from a May 2026 meeting of the NSW environmental protection authority show that if all eight large datacentres in the Sydney basin ran generators simultaneously, the one-hour air pollution load would be five to six times that of all electricity generation in NSW and five to six times that of all motor vehicles. The chief executive of Data Centres Australia, Belinda Dennett, called this a worst-case scenario, stating: "Backup generators are standby equipment, not power stations. They run mainly for brief, staggered testing, with rare emergency use." NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, chairing the datacentres inquiry, said current air impact assessments underestimate hours, and warned: "It's a disaster waiting to happen. Particularly given the proximity of many of these projects to dense residential areas and schools."
