Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are probably the only country on earth now that does not have ethanol mandated into our petrol tanks. Every other country on earth is aware of the fact that more people die from motor vehicle emissions than from motor vehicle accidents. That is said by the senior professor in this area in Australia, Jonathan Streeton, who gave the evidence in the smoking case in Australia, and by every other world health authority person. So they are doing it to save lives. Here in Australia, we obviously don't worry about how many people die because of the super fine particles, because there isn't a very good burn with conventional petrol. It has no oxygen in it, so it doesn't burn properly. If you put ethanol in it, ethanol is 30 per cent oxygen, so you get a much better burn and you don't get the fine particles. There are 13 carcinogens in petrol. Those fine particles come out coated in carcinogens. Is it any wonder that, if you move to Forbes or Parkes in New South Wales, inner Sydney, your chances of dying of lung disease or heart disease double? That's not my opinion; that's the opinion of the Journal of the American Medical Association in the United States. (Time expired)