Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In commending the Fuel Quality Standards (Renewable Content of Motor Vehicle Fuel) Amendment Bill 2006 to the House, I will put before the House some relevant facts.

I start with the failure of the government’s current policy of moral suasion and some small incentivism. Since this policy was initiated by the government in 2002, Australian ethanol production has fallen from 75 million litres to only 23 million litres in 2005, a deplorable failure of government policy.

Secondly, the great republic of the United States, through the Clean Air Act, are on nearly five per cent ethanol content in their fuel now. The act triggers the requirement for oxygenation of gasoline—which is what Americans call petrol—when it does not hit what they call the non-attainment ozone level. The three tiers of government in the United States have also passed into law the Energy Policy Act 2005, which legislates for 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol in gasoline by 2012, which is around five per cent. The bill I am presenting in the House today mirrors that United States act. The United States President, George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address on 31 January 2006, stated:

Our goal is to make … ethanol … replace 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.

Thirdly, and overwhelmingly of the greatest importance: people are suffering and dying in Australia’s major cities from small particles of hydrocarbon material not chemically consumed in engine combustion and the release of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which we refer to as aromatics, which are in petrol in many forms. Ethanol contains 30 per cent oxygen, providing a much better combustion and therefore fewer small particles are released, there is more power and a raised RON, enabling dramatic reduction of aromatics.

I have provided for the House a quote from the State of the Union message and the United States legislation which we are mirroring in the House today. I move on to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the most distinguished medical journal in the world, which has a report that indicates a doubling of the amount of small particles in the air results in a doubling of lung cancer mortality. A similar article covers the same issue in New Scientist magazine. I have a quote from Dr Tom Beer, the leading air quality expert in Australia, with the CSIRO: ‘Mortality in Australia due to air pollution is higher than the road toll.’ The air pollution he is referring to is that coming out of our motor vehicles in exhaust fumes. It is a shocking reflection upon this government that nothing has been done to allay the misery and suffering that is occurring in our major cities—where seven of my grandchildren live, by the way, Mr Deputy Speaker. The Australian Medical Association has urged and pleaded with the government to introduce mandated ethanol. A statement has been made by Professor Carney of the University of Sydney, one of the leading experts in Australia along with Dr Jonathan Streeton. They have been the strongest and most passionate advocates to save people from suffering and dying.

The fourth point I want to make is in relation to the graph released by ABARE and Geoscience Australia, which we all know as the Bureau of Mineral Resources, shows that Australia had been over 90 per cent self-sufficient in our petrol requirements up till about 2002. From now on there will be a dramatic drop in production in Australia. This graph shows that over the next five or six years we will drop down to about 27 per cent self-sufficiency in oil from our current 95 per cent. The country is running out of petrol and we are doing nothing about it. The price, I do not have to tell anyone in this House, is around $1.30 a litre. I put before the House four photographs of bowsers in Brazil, where petrol is selling at 68c a litre. (Time expired)

Bill read a first time.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 41(d) the second reading will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.