Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I must say how disappointed I am that the Minister for Climate Change and Energy is not in here. I back up the member for Fairfax. All I can assume is that he saw the speaking list of the MPI today. I think he's still traumatised from when I monstered him about three years ago in question time! That's all I could think of.

Just to finish off where the member for Perth was, I understand the member for Perth would understand this issue. He'd be the sort of person that would have to stop at a Driver Reviver site when he drives from his place over to Fremantle for a swim—different to my part of the world. He talked about the savings. I drive a Toyota LandCruiser 300. It uses about 10.4 litres for every 100 kilometres. Under the new scheme, I would have to save—and I understand that the fuel efficiency system does mean that the new model would use less fuel—12,000 litres of fuel on the $25,000 extra it costs to buy it before I got back to square. How long would it take to use the 12,000 litres of extra fuel on top of that? I've been sitting here in great frustration as the minister, over the last couple of weeks, has been answering questions. He doesn't answer the question about the added cost of purchasing the vehicles.

I had a meeting last week with David Hayes, who's the dealer principal of Dubbo City and Gilgandra Toyota. It's a very big dealership that sells cars and commercial vehicles over a wide range of New South Wales, and he's terribly concerned about what these changes will do. He said that the changes coming in on 1 January next year will have a massive impact not only on his business and staff but also on his customers. Not only is David Hayes concerned, but I got an email yesterday from Justin Hoskins, who's the dealer principal of the Toyota dealership at Broken Hill. Just so you've got a bit of an idea, Broken Hill serves communities like Tibooburra, White Cliffs, Wilcannia and Menindee, and more out to South Australia. These people travel long distances, and Justin Hoskins is terribly concerned about the impact it's going to have not only on his business but on his customers.

Next Wednesday, I'm going to the conference of the Isolated Children's Parents' Association. Their annual conference is in Dubbo next week. If you want to meet a more formidable lobby group, I welcome anyone who could suggest one. I could suggest that the member for Perth might want to come and stand in front of these parents that have children in isolated areas. These vehicles—the Prado, the Ranger, the HiLux, the LandCruiser and the D-Max—aren't luxury items. I know they might be an inconvenience when you're going to park at Westfield and they take up a bit more room than your Prius or Tesla, but these vehicles are a fact of life. If you live 200 kilometres from Broken Hill, you have no other choice but to have a vehicle that's an SUV with high clearance or a four-wheel-drive that's able to handle access during wet weather.

The Labor government are actually attacking the people who, once upon a time, used to support them. Young families, tradespeople and farmers—people that used to look to Labor as the champions of the working person. Now it's the working person—who has complete understanding that an SUV, ute or car is not a luxury—that's being hammered by the inner-city elites. You don't just use it to go on your holiday to Fraser Island. This is your everyday tool of trade to keep your family safe and to have access to town when you need it.

It's time this debate focused on the cost of this and stopped faffing around the edge and talking about savings. As far as I can see, there ain't no savings to be found anywhere.

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