Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I second this motion with great enthusiasm. As you know, this New Vehicle Efficiency Standard Bill has basically become known as the ute and SUV tax, and that's why we need to refer it to the standing committee that the shadow minister has recommended.

I just want to pick this straight up: since this has been introduced or discussed, when we've come up with figures like, 'This could increase the price of a ute and an SUV by up to $25,000,' these figures, with all due respect to him, have not come from the shadow minister. These figures haven't been formulated by anyone on this side of politics. These figures have come from the manufacturers, who weren't properly consulted before this bill was first discussed. In fact, it goes beyond the manufacturers. These figures actually came from Thailand's Prime Minister. When he was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago at the ASEAN conference, Thailand's Prime Minister—Thailand make a lot of vehicles, and we import a lot of vehicles from Thailand—raised concerns about the speed. Again, it was the speed of what the minister wanted to introduce here that was causing all the problems. Thailand's Prime Minister said that this will—because of the penalties, because of the fines that it would be put on vehicles that they manufacture—increase the cost of the vehicles they are sending to Australia. This was apparently shock, horror, gasp to the government, who denied that it was the case.

This comes back to the core of this government, of their not consulting. There's a history, there's a form that they have. We've got the religious discrimination bill going around at the moment. We've got other bills going around. And this government does not consult widely—or, when they do, you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. You then get a part of the bill—what they think is relevant to you. Then you're not allowed to talk about the bill and what you think might be its ramifications.

That's why this government keeps making bad decisions. I note a member of the crossbench here, a teal. They were going to come into a parliament talking about how the sun was shining in—transparency. I'd like to hear a lot more from the teals about the non-disclosure agreements this government is forcing on all the negotiations they're doing, because this is why they're making bad decisions.

I also would also ask, does this surprise us? Unfortunately, no. The shadow minister said very eloquently that the minister who has carriage of this has form. We could go way back to when he was the minister for immigration. He had form then. He was probably the worst minister for immigration we ever had, when he was the minister back then. And he had form when as shadow Treasurer he said, 'If you don't like the franking credits, don't vote for us.' Well, that went well for him. So he has form. And I say to any marginal seat holder over on the Labor side of politics, be very nervous about the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Be very nervous about him, because anything he's trying to introduce will probably make you a one-termer. So I encourage every marginal seat holder in the Labor Party to talk to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, because he's the best person you've got to make you a one-termer.

Let's just go back, again, to the question of why the minister has rushed this and why he has not consulted on it. And he's got more than this ball in the air. He's also got his renewable energy target. But before I go there, I will say that the shadow minister missed one point in that great address he gave to the parliament. The one thing you didn't mention when you were talking about the modelling, with all due respect—and yes, they did model that it was 27c per kilowatt hour, and you said it's going to be 56c—is: when will they be charging them? At night! Well, good luck with that, if this minister has carriage of this, because we won't have any power at night, with the current Minister for Climate Change, because the lights will have gone out; it'll be 'Blackout Bowen'! Seriously, the renewable energy target that he has, with both sun and wind, means that the power won't be going on at night, so good luck with charging your EV at night if he's minister for much longer. Forget the price; you won't be charging up. There'll be nothing coming through. Again, this goes back to the target that this minister has on renewable energy.

As the shadow minister said, we are happy to be involved with the fact that we get better emission standards within vehicles. We are also happy to meet our net zero 2050 emission targets. They're important. We actually understand, too, that renewables are part of that, and we're happy to have that conversation. But the reckless targets that this minister has on renewable energy mean that he's desperate, as the shadow minister said, in the sense that he set targets for renewable energy that are unachievable. There's not actually the technology to make renewable energy reliable through the targets he has set. So, the first easy pick was, 'Oh, well let's go for the EV; let's go for the transport industry.' There are obviously some people with some sense over there, because, as we know, he's crab crawling away from this. He's obviously been rolled in cabinet. Obviously they've gone to him and said. 'Well, you might not have spoken to the manufacturers, you might not have spoken to all the stakeholders, but we have, and they're telling us that your plan doesn't work.' Well, it would have been nice to have consulted on that earlier, before he embarrassed himself by coming in with a bill that he's now having to crab crawl back from. So at least there is some movement there, but this minister is dangerous.

I take the interjection that batteries work. Well, they don't work very well for the volume you're talking about. If we want to go to what works, that will be interesting to see. He also says, 'Let's go to the cost aspect.' He says that renewable energy is going to make power cheaper. One thing he misses there—and I'd love the rationale for this—is that he needs 28,000 kilometres of new transmission system for that system. That's a red alert for people on the other side: 40 per cent of your power bills is the transmission system, and he wants to build 28,000 kilometres of new transmission system, which some industry people say is going to be over a hundred billion bucks. Good luck bringing that down with your power bill.

Unfortunately, I'm surprised. I don't know how the factions of the Labor Party work—but obviously not well given that this minister is still a senior minister in the government. He has had form for over 10 years. There's not much he touched that didn't turn out badly for him, the government and the country, as I said, when he was immigration minister and shadow Treasurer. If you wanted to run through a top three of bad performing ministers on the other side, he would always be in the top three. There's some competition for it. I'd throw the minister for infrastructure in there because she's pretty close all the time as well.

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