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

I thank the honourable member for his question. Presumably he's raised it with the member for Bradfield, who pointed out, when he was trying to introduce fuel efficiency standards, that the price of no model will go up in Australia, as it hadn't in any other country in the world, and that the impact on purchasing wouldn't change. Perhaps he has raised the same point with the former Treasurer, the former member for Kooyong, who, just weeks before the last election, said on Insiders, 'The Liberal Party has always been committed to fuel efficiency standards.' As the minister for transport just shared with the House, apparently the Leader of the Opposition is still committed. That's a funny way of showing their commitment, but they're still committed!

Commitment means delivering. What we are doing, as the minister for transport just said, is consulting on a preferred model with a wide range of stakeholders across industry and consumer groups to ensure we get the model right. That's what we're doing because that's what good governments do. Then we will introduce the legislation. We will be voting for cost-of-living relief which reduces the amount of petrol used by motorists, whether they choose a more efficient petrol vehicle, a more efficient diesel vehicle or an EV, because we want more choices available to the Australian people, not fewer choices. We want Australia to catch up with every other major economy in the world, except for Russia. The Leader of the Opposition is happy to stay in the group of two—G2, Australia and Russia—when it comes to vehicle efficiency standards, and we are not.

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