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

The member asked about cost and benefits of different models of cars, and I'm more than happy to engage. I know they don't love electric vehicles. We believe in choice for Australians to buy either an electric vehicle or a hybrid or a more fuel-efficient diesel or petrol car, which are available in the rest of the world but not in Australia and not in Russia because we're the only two major economies without fuel efficiency standards. The Leader of the Opposition says he wants to be with Russia—so be it. If you want to be with Russia, that's your approach. That's his big plan for Australia: to stay back in the past, not have efficiency standards and not give Australians choice between electric vehicles, diesel vehicles that are more efficient, petrol vehicles that are more efficient and hybrids.

That's why we are proposing a policy under which an average new car buyer in 2028 will cut their annual fuel costs by around $1,000. The member for Bradfield put it so eloquently in that op-ed in theAustralian jointly with the then member for Kooyong when he said, 'People in regional and rural areas will be the big winners from fuel efficiency standards.' He put it so well. And maybe that is why the RACQ, the peak body for motorists in Queensland, wrote, 'A well-designed standard'—

Opposition members interjecting—

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