Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. The minister hailed Labor's new family car and ute tax as bringing Australia into line with vehicle standards in the United States by 2028. Now the Biden administration has abandoned its initial policy amid fears that billions of dollars in new fines on auto makers would increase the price of new cars for families. Why are Australian families facing higher prices and fewer choices because of this government's failed energy policies?

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. There was a lot in there, but I'm just going to focus on the new vehicle efficiency standards, because on this side of the House we've had enough of Australian motorists being second-class citizens and being the dumping ground for motoring companies to send cars to Australia that they're not allowed to send to other countries. What the Minister for Transport and I have been doing is a very similar process to that taken by the previous government when they thought about doing this: putting out a preferred model and consulting on it. That's what we've been doing. That consultation is very close to a conclusion, and we'll have more to say. Of course we've looked at the recent developments in the United States as part of that, but the difference is that, when the member for Bradfield consulted on his preferred model, he got rolled and they rolled over the policy. They were happy to have Australian motorists treated at the back of the queue of the world's car companies. We are not. We think it's about time Australia had similar standards to the rest of the world and we got out of the G2 of Australia and Russia, as the only two countries without efficiency standards.