In the ongoing negotiation between national ambition and regional autonomy, Australia's federal government has reasserted its authority over how data centres — the vast, power-hungry infrastructure of the digital age — will be energised. Energy Minister Chris Bowen moved swiftly to correct Queensland Premier David Crisafulli's claim that states had won the right to choose their own energy mix for data centres, insisting that Commonwealth law will govern uniformly, with renewables as the national standard. The episode reveals a deeper tension in federal systems: the gap between what leaders hea