Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week I spent time in my electorate, travelling through the north and western part and visiting communities in Dubbo, Narromine, Bourke, Brewarrina and Walgett. I did a bit of a poll in the main streets of those towns as to the vehicles that were parked there. There were a large number of four-wheel drives: Prados, LandCruisers, Ford Territories and a lot of utes with toolboxes on the back and ladders on the top—and a couple of dogs on some of them. And those people would be horrified to know that the policy from this government will see a massive increase in the cost of those vehicles. These people haven't got vehicles to plan their next glamping trip to the Daintree. These are the average people who might travel 50 kilometres into town to work every day. If you have a look in the backseat, there'll be a couple of car seats and room to put supplies the back.

I understand the Treasurer is here—and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. These SUVs might be a bit inconvenient when you go to park a Tesla next to them at Westfield, but these are the workhorses that rural hardworking people need, and this government is picking on them. They're expecting hardworking regional Australians to subsidise those in the inner cities buying their elective vehicles. I'm not opposed to electric vehicles. They've got their place, but it's not in the bush.