A bid to ban data centres from Western Australia’s biggest municipality was this week defeated after 45 minutes of ardent debate.

At the City of Stirling council meeting on August 11, Cr Suzanne Migdale moved that a report be prepared on classifying data centres as a prohibited use throughout the 255,000-person municipality; WA’s largest by population.

“I’m not opposed to technology, I’m not opposed to artificial intelligence and I’m not opposed to the use of data,” she said during the meeting at the city’s headquarters 9km north of the Perth CBD.