Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very pleased to confirm to the honourable member that the government is currently, as we speak, consulting on fuel quality standards, particularly in relation to Euro 6; that process has begun. That is a matter for the climate change portfolio, for those opposite who don't understand government arrangements!

The minister for transport and I are also working very closely together on the related matter of fuel efficiency standards. They're two very closely related programs, but they're quite separate in terms of their implementation. Fuel efficiency standards are those which encourage and require manufacturers to send electric vehicles and other low-emissions vehicles to Australia—perhaps low-emissions vehicles and electric vehicles like utes, which do exist and are available in many countries around the world. They're not currently available in Australia, because we lack fuel efficiency standards. As somebody who's driven an electric ute, I can confirm they do exist and are available elsewhere, but, because of 10 years of policy indolence, they're not available in Australia.

But the honourable member for North Sydney is quite right. While that transition is occurring—

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