Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We are in a climate crisis which requires the rapid shift to net zero emissions through the electrification of all the sectors of our society. With light vehicle transport alone responsible for 10 per cent of Australia's emissions, electrifying our transport system must be a high priority for this parliament and this government.

Listening to previous speakers, you might think that this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Electric Car Discount) Bill 2022, was about to bring electric cars within reach of everyday people and see a massive investment. It is a step towards electrifying our transport fleet, but it primarily applies, in this bill, to people who salary package their cars or who are on forms of leases or for big corporations that are buying cars and using them for their staff. It is important that we tackle that. It is important that we take a step towards electrifying our transport fleet. But let's be clear. Despite the rhetoric from the previous speakers, there is still a long way to go to ensure that we fast-track the electric vehicle revolution here in this country. If we're serious about taking steps that would see the electrification of our transport fleet across this country, we need policies to push out old, dirty and obsolete vehicles; we need policies to bring in cleaner, better and more efficient electric vehicles; and we need the infrastructure to power-up Australia's new electric vehicles and our vehicle-manufacturing industry. Let's just go through those one by one.

The US, China, Japan, and Europe have had mandatory vehicle emission standards for decades—that is, standards about how much pollution your car can emit. We still do not have those in this country. It is clear what needs to be done. We don't need more reviews or consultations; we just need to get on with it. At the moment, Australia is already a dumping ground for dirty, expensive, inefficient vehicles, and it's only going to get worse. Without these standards, consumers will continue not to be offered the range of electric vehicles that are already available to most of the world. The fuel excise discount is about to end. We're in a cost-of-living crisis, with high fuel costs driven by our dependency on the rest of the world for fuel security. Surely there is no better time to be introducing pollution standards that will save people money. Surely it makes sense to depend on the sun, not the ongoing extraction of climate-destroying, planet-killing fossil fuels.

The Greens want to see fuel efficiency standards, or CO2 emissions standards, starting with 105 grams per kilometre and ratcheting down to zero by 2030, and a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2030, to bring us into line with leading countries like the United Kingdom as well. At the election, it was only the Greens pushing for these vehicle emissions standards, to stop us becoming the dumping ground for dirty cars that the rest of the world can't sell anywhere. Since the introduction of the bill, there have been steps towards the Greens' policy by the government, saying that they will look at fuel efficiency standards. We're going to keep pushing until Australia starts to align with the best practice in the rest of the world and we have fuel efficiency standards that will not only drive EV uptake here but stop us being the dumping ground for cars from the rest of the world that they can't sell anywhere else.

People have got to understand the significance of what happens if we don't have these fuel efficiency standards. If everyone else around the world has them—if everywhere else they've got policies in place that say your car can't be too polluting—and they've got electric vehicle targets, and Australia is one of the few places where those rules don't apply, then all of the dirty cars that are made everywhere else are going to be dumped here. Right now, with the cost of fuel dependent on coal, gas and oil rising because of international events like a war—when a dictator decides to invade another country, it has massive flow-through effects here—we're seeing the absolute craziness of continuing to rely on those forms of fossil fuels. Even worse, if we don't have fuel efficiency standards, the average Australian is going to be even more on the hook, because the cars that are going to be flooding the market here will be the ones that they can't sell in the rest of the world and that require you to spend even more money on petrol, because they won't be efficient. So that's why we need fuel efficiency standards. It is the way that we're going to start bringing down costs, including the cost of living, and also drive the uptake of EVs and make them more affordable here.

We also need proper electric vehicle subsidies, in combination with efficiency standards, to turbocharge both supply and demand. We've been pushing—we pushed during the election—to invest $1.2 billion to support manufacturers of electric vehicles and electric vehicle components in Australia, to build the Australian EV-manufacturing industry. The prospect of remaking manufacturing while simultaneously addressing the climate crisis is actually quite exhilarating. We've had so many opportunities here, many of which have slipped through our fingers because of the neglect of the previous government.

The previous speaker referred to the former Liberal government's decision to axe the Automotive Transformation Scheme, which saw jobs and industries disappear in the blink of an eye. What they don't realise and didn't seem to realise at the time is that it wasn't just the makers of the cars, the big names that everyone knows because you see the brand name emblazoned on the car. It was so many of the smaller manufacturers and component manufacturers underneath them, in places like South Australia and in my home state of Victoria, that were there producing, manufacturing, employing people and ready to switch over to electric vehicles. It was this massive opportunity that we had here in this country.

During the term of the former Liberal government, as they were talking about the future of the transformation scheme, I met with people and companies who were prepared to make electric vehicles here, including utes and four-wheel drives, and they were just saying to the government, 'Can we get a bit of support—a fraction of the support that's been given to the coal and gas industries, and a fraction of the support that's been given to petrol cars—and we can start taking our component manufacturers that we've got here, and integrating them into supply chains and making EVs here?' The former government said no.

We now find ourselves a fair way behind, when we could have used the last five years to integrate existing component manufacturers—which are in many places around Australia but especially in South Australia and Victoria—into making EVs here. We would have avoided massive dislocation and we would be producing the products that now Australians want to buy and the rest of the world wants to buy. And that's why an investment to support manufacturers of EVs and EV components in Australia is absolutely critical. It's not in this bill, though. It's not in this bill, so let's be clear-eyed about the small step this bill is taking. But that's what we need to do.

We also think that the requirement to put charging stations into new road infrastructure, which a previous speaker mentioned, is good, but we're going to need a much more intensive and extensive network of charging stations than the small allocation of funds that was referred to, $30 million odd, is going to support. Think about where there are petrol stations and how many petrol stations there are across the country, and the infrastructure that exists to support internal combustion engine cars. We're going to need a version of that to support electric vehicles, and not just private cars. Trucks, freight—we can move freight around using electric vehicles, but we're going need the infrastructure to support that.

We want to see $2 billion invested in a publicly owned EV fast-charging network. That is the kind of thing that would give people confidence—which they can have at the moment, in many instances, because when you investigate it you understand that the range anxiety that exists with respect to EVs is actually overcome with existing technologies. But build that charging infrastructure and make it publicly available and visible, and the uptake will happen much, much more quickly, because people will know they can charge their car wherever they go. It's something that the government should invest in because it's building a common network that then everyone can benefit from. As I say, time is running out to tackle the climate crisis, and government has to take the reins. Government stepping in and building the backbone, the network that everyone then knows they can plug into and be part of, is going to fast-track the uptake of EVs.

It's also time to look at redirecting the massive subsidies that currently go to coal and gas in this country. Close to $12 billion a year, between various levels of government, is spent subsidising fossil fuels in this country. Instead, we need to look at saying, 'You've had your day. Many of you are big, tax-dodging corporations anyway; you don't need public handouts.'

Let's stop the subsidies to fossil fuels, and let's instead work out how we can make EVs within financial reach of everyday people in this country. We need subsidies for people to get their first EV. A $10,000 subsidy on every first electric vehicle could be put in place and could be funded in this upcoming budget—not by asking everyday people to pay more but by stopping giving coal and gas corporations the handouts that they are getting, and perhaps even by not giving billionaires like Clive Palmer a $9,000-a-year tax cut with the stage 3 tax cuts. The money is there. Instead of giving Clive Palmer a tax cut, let's make it easier for the average Australian to go and buy their first electric vehicle, a $10,000 subsidy on every first electric vehicle. What you would do is decrease that over time as the uptake of electric vehicles across the country increased.

You could also—and we will be pushing for this—have the government provide low-cost finance to remove the cost barriers to consumers and ensure equity. Now, these measures aren't controversial in the rest of the world. Subsidies to help people get their first EV exist elsewhere. Subsidies would put Australia in line with leading countries like the United States, who are extending out to 2032 a $7½ thousand subsidy for new electric vehicles.

This package of policies that I've just outlined, implemented together—so, much more than this small step being taken by the bill, which, as I say, is primarily aimed not at everyday buyers of electric cars but at larger fleets and at people who salary-package—would mean there's no reason that Australia can't rapidly accelerate towards an electric vehicle take-off, just as other countries have done. And when people say, 'Well, where's the money coming from,' I repeat the point: all of this that I've just outlined that would fast-track the electric vehicle revolution in Australia would cost just a fraction of the over $200 billion that the government is spending on stage 3 tax cuts to give the likes of Clive Palmer a $9,000-a-year handout. Don't give Clive Palmer a $9,000-a-year handout that he doesn't need. Instead, give everyday people a subsidy to go and buy their first electric vehicle. That is a better use of public money.

The Greens will push in this parliament to see the government take the ambitious action that's needed. We know it's affordable, and, with Australia's transport sector and light vehicles accounting for about10 per cent of our pollution here, it's something we've got to do if we want to tackle the climate crisis in the time available to us.

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