Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Customs Tariff Amendment (Incorporation of Proposals) Bill 2023 has the coalition's support, but that doesn't mean that we don't have concerns about particular aspects of it. I'd like to talk about those particular parts of the bill, but it will nonetheless go through with coalition support. The bill amends the Customs Tariff Act to incorporate the measures in a number of customs tariff proposals. There are four elements to the bill: a 35 per cent tariff on top of the existing tariff payable on goods from Russia and Belarus; a free rate of tariff on goods that are the product of manufacture of Ukraine; an extension of free tariff designation on essential hygiene and medical related goods in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and a free tariff for certain electric and low-emissions vehicles. We support all four, but we have a few concerns with item No. 4. Before I get to that I want to speak to the first two—those being, the restrictions on goods from Russia and Belarus and the removal of restrictions on goods from Ukraine.

It's easy to get desensitised by conflict, especially when it's on your TV and your computer. Life moves on and other issues move on. Sadly, there are many in other parliaments around the world, including in the United States and the United Kingdom, but more so particularly in the United States, who are questioning the level of support that has been given to Ukraine. That is quite concerning and disturbing because the footage from Ukraine looks exactly like the pictures that you would see if you walked up the road to the War Memorial—all the trees are wiped away; just mud, frost and trenches; and young men and women are crawling through mud and digging scrapes to survive the artillery barrage. The Russian military has had its setbacks, but one of the things it has is a huge supply of people and equipment.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 17:16 to 17:45

I just wanted to speak on two parts. One was to say how much we support particularly the first two elements of this bill, being a tariff on goods from Russia and Belarus and 'free' tariffs on those from Ukraine.

Before we were rudely interrupted by the bells, I was asking this chamber to reflect upon some images. If you haven't seen them, just close your eyes and imagine now if you were to walk up the road to the War Memorial and look at those black-and-white pictures of Ypres or the Somme, when so much artillery was dropped on a square kilometre of earth that there was no life, no trees, no bushes, nothing, just mud and soil. If you were to take a bird's-eye view of that area, you would see zigzagging trenches designed somehow to give some comfort to people who are crawling into a hole, hoping they might survive absolute hell. We must never forget that, just over a year before, those people who were fighting for their very existence were teachers or people who ran cafes, and many, many thousands lost their lives fighting for their homeland. It's easy to be desensitised, and it's easy to say we must never forget the sacrifice they made for this country, but the importance of that conflict and the importance of that they succeeded cannot be underestimated.

This provision is a small step towards acknowledging that there must be consequences for the aggressive act of the state of Russia. Likewise, when this eventually ends, whether it's by negotiated settlement or otherwise, Ukraine will need help to build back up again. Those people who are fighting for their lives and trying to survive night after night in hell will want to provide a better life and a better future for their children and grandchildren. There's no more important role for us than helping them with trade, so we commend this.

Briefly, in terms of the electrical vehicle part, I often get emails and calls from members of my electorate who want me to come for a spin in their new Teslas; I think I went for the first one and then realised I should stop doing this! It's not because I don't appreciate what they're showing me. I do acknowledge that there's a transition underway in automobiles that people are naturally excited about, and some want it to happen quicker than might otherwise occur.

One of the issues they raise is infrastructure for charging. It will happen. It will come. It probably won't be because of the government; it will be because of the market. When we transitioned from horse and cart to combustion engine, the service stations didn't pop up because the government said, 'We'll do it.' They popped up because there were enough people with cars that there was a profit to be made. I think the same will happen and we will see that infrastructure around Australia.

There is an element to this that we are concerned about but not so concerned that we won't let it go through. We're really talking about a specific type of car, because any car from Japan, Thailand, Korea, China or the United States is covered by a free trade agreement. So let's be honest about what we're talking about: we're talking about fancy German electric cars. We're talking about cars that come from Germany and maybe those from Hungary. Again, it's not to say that they're not important or they don't matter; it is but one element in making that transition.

I'll conclude by saying that this is an important bill, and it's a reminder of what's happening on the other side of the world and what people are fighting for. We should support them.

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