Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. In the government's recently released National Electric Vehicle Strategy, the government committed to working in consultation with stakeholders to design a fuel efficiency standard for passenger and light commercial vehicles, yet no time line was given. Exactly when can Australians expect to see these standards being announced?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question and her interest in the National Electric Vehicle Strategy released by the minister for transport and me in recent weeks. And the honourable member is right: the National Electric Vehicle Strategy commits the government to introducing a fuel efficiency standard, and we're very proud of that.

This should have happened years ago. It was always contemplated by some opposite—the former member for Kooyong said he was committed to it—but they just never got around to doing it because they don't actually believe in making manufacturers send fuel-efficient vehicles, electric vehicles and other vehicles, to Australia. We have committed to doing that because Australia and Russia are the only two developed countries without fuel efficiency standards, and that means Australians are missing out on real choice. This is a complicated—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Here they go again! Every time they interject against renewable energy and electric cars, they just remind the Australian people they still don't get it. Keep it coming. Keep those interjections coming! The denial and delay, they should just keep it coming!

In relation to fuel efficiency standards, they are a complicated piece of work. The minister for transport and I released a consultation paper. We received many submissions calling for fuel efficiency standards. I will be frank with the honourable member: not many of those submissions went to the detail about how they should be designed—hardly any. The minister for transport and I read them all. Many called for fuel efficiency standards, but only one or two actually went to detailed elements of design. And we have to get that right.

What we have done is open our consultation for six weeks on the detailed design. Having waited 10 years, it's six weeks to get it right—to get the detail right. That's what the minister for transport and I are doing. That consultation period is well and truly open. We invite all submissions, including from members of the House and the Senate. I know peak groups are looking at their submissions. The minister for transport will be looking at that very carefully, as will I be, because we want to get it right. We said we want ambitious standards, but we want standards that are realistic and we want standards that are achievable. That's what we are committed to delivering, because Australia has had 10 years of delay and now we are getting on with it.