Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

Some things change, but some things stay the same. It seems that the members for Higgins are always going to try and lecture people who live in regional Australia. So my message to the member for Higgins is that I, if I had an EV like her, wouldn't have to charge it once a week, as she describes it, because I drive 100,000 kilometres a year. There would be absolutely no ability for me to do my job if I were driving an electric vehicle. So, Member for Higgins, before you talk about this policy and how it affects regional Australians, have a think about what regional Australians actually have to do.

Now, I had intended to come in here and talk about some other things, but I've got to address some issues the member for Higgins just raised. She just spoke about how this is a great example of free-market policy operating in the Australian environment. Now, with respect, the Assistant Treasurer here could barely stop from smirking because he knows it's many things, this policy, but it's not an example of the free market in operation. If it were the free market in operation, we wouldn't be asked to consider this particular issue. I appreciate the argument about renewable energies has fallen flat on those opposite—namely, why are we having to continue to subsidise its rollout if it's so cheap? That argument has supposedly been lost on those opposite. But now we've got an example of those opposite saying, 'Why are these neoliberals over there just wanting to get in the way of the free market?' Oh my! I don't know how you could describe asking someone who would like to buy a Land Cruiser to pay for credits that would be provided to another OEM as an example of the free market in operation. It just simply cannot be.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I didn't come here to talk about the member for Higgins. I want to talk about what this is doing to regional Australians. This is a tax on regionality. Why?

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