Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

As I said, in case you couldn't hear me, you cannot believe a single thing these Chicken Littles of Australian politics actually have to say. On this side of the House, we want Australians to have a greater choice of the new vehicles they buy and to pay less of their hard earned cash in fuel.

We're consulting on a new vehicle efficiency standard that is right for Australia, but Australians have missed out on millions of dollars of fuel savings because of those opposite. They're missing out on millions of dollars of fuel savings they could have been saving now because those opposite lacked the courage to do anything about it. The Leader of the Nationals needs to explain why he thinks that Australia should not have access to cars that are cheaper to run and why he thinks that Australians buying a new car should be paying more at the petrol bowser than those in other comparable countries. Explain why you think that is the case.

Australia has become, as we know, a dumping ground for less modern cars, and everyday Australians are paying more at the petrol bowser because of it. We currently stand alone with Russia as one of the last advanced economies not to have a fuel efficiency standard. The Leader of the Nationals might want to align his policies with those of Russia, but I would rather line up with 85 per cent of countries in the global car market. His own colleagues, frankly, not only supported a standard when in government; they confirmed that it would not push up prices:

So when fuel efficiency standards were introduced in the US, the most popular models before introduction stayed the most popular models after introduction … what we would call utes … There wasn't a material change in price and we don't expect that there would be a material change in price here.

There is not a single cost-of-living measure that those opposite don't want to vote against, including making sure Australians pay less at the petrol bowser. (Time expired)

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