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

The Leader of the Opposition said last week on 9 February:

Now, we have some of the highest efficiency standards in the world in terms of our vehicles …

There are a couple of small problems with that statement. You could argue about whether they were the highest or the lowest if they existed, but the fact of the matter is Australia doesn't have any fuel efficiency standards—a point that was made by the member for Bradfield in his op-ed in the Australian when he said:

Eighty per cent of the global vehicle passenger fleet is subject to fuel efficiency standards, but Australia has none.

We've seen other examples. A man who's received a bit of attention in question time today, Senator Canavan—not the most outrageous thing he said, but it's pretty outrageous—said the government of Australia has decided to introduce the world's most aggressive emissions limits on vehicles here in Australia. This is clear misinformation when you consider, I confess to the House, the standards that the minister for transport and me are consulting on proposing are less ambitious than those that exist in Europe, New Zealand and other key markets.

We have carefully designed them to deliver benefits to the Australian people—$140 billion in benefits to all Australians between now and 2050 and $12 billion in fuel savings for motorists by 2030. The average new car buyer in 2028 will cut their annual fuel cost by around a thousand dollars. Health benefits, which is why this policy has been welcomed by the Australian Medical Association as well as the peak motoring groups such as the NRMA, called for by the RACQ and RACW, and welcomed by Hyundai, Volkswagen, BMW, Kia and Volvo, to name a few.

This is what good policy looks like: careful consultation over a 12-month period, taking many submissions and putting Australian motorists first, while those opposite put Australian motorists last—equal with the motorists in Russia, where the Leader of the Opposition wants to align his policies.

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