Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question goes to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Why, during Labor's cost-of-living crisis, is the government proposing a tax increase of $15,000 on the price of a new Toyota Hilux?

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

I deeply appreciate the question from the member for Fairfax. I also think it should be noted that I appreciate the bravery of the Manager of Opposition Business for allowing that question. Not every manager of opposition business, with everything he has on the record, would be strong enough to allow those questions to be asked! The member asked me about price increases under a fuel efficiency standard or new vehicle efficiency standard. I refer the honourable member to the impact statement that the minister for transport and I released several weeks ago, which says and makes clear:

… the evidence to date consistently finds no purchase price impact, or a negligible purchase price impact, for consumers …

That's based on the experience right around the world. But, to be fair to the impact analysis, others have said it better. Others have said it much more eloquently than I have. For example, when it has been tried in the past in Australia to implement this important reform, it was pointed out:

… when fuel efficiency standards were introduced in the US, the most popular models before introduction stayed the most popular models after introduction. … There wasn't a material change in price and we don't expect that there would be a material change in price here.

That was the member for Bradfield. The Manager of Opposition Business is still in charge of the tactics. He was a strong advocate. He put the case very strongly and very eloquently. There was a joint op-ed in the Australian between the member for Bradfield and the then member for Kooyong, the former future Prime Minister. The headline was 'Clean air and cars can be a much healthier mix'. I table the op-ed, because the member for Bradfield was on a roll. He said:

Fuel efficiency standards are about reducing fuel costs and carbon emissions at the same time. Eighty per cent of the global vehicle passenger fleet is subject to fuel efficiency standards, but Australia has none.

He's right. This is not a radical policy. These standards have been in place. This is where prices have not gone up. Standards have been in place in the United States since 1975—almost as long as the member for Fairfax and I have both been alive—in Japan since 1985, China 2005, South Korea 2006, the European Union 2009 and Canada 2011. Vehicle emissions standards were introduced in Mexico in 2013 and India in 2014—those woke warriors, those well-known renewable energy inner-city dwellers! The government of Saudi Arabia introduced fuel efficiency standards in 2016, and New Zealand did in 2023. It is well beyond time for Australia to catch up. It is well beyond time for Australia's consumers to have access to the same choices that 85 per cent of motorists around the world get but that motorists in Australia and Russia do not.