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

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. EVs are fuelled by solar panels from China, where production and smelting belch out vast clouds of CO2. Ethanol motor vehicles emit CO2 but the sugarcane crop absorbs back these emissions. Minister, wasn't Morris Iemma right in introducing ethanol, referring to petrols as carcinogens? I won't go another day with peoples' deaths on my conscience—people that did not have to die. Brazil's petrol, at 49 per cent ethanol, sells for $1.10 a litre. Australia's petrol imports are $48 billion a year. Doesn't this magic-wand a richer, cleaner, more affordable Australia?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member's walking stick, or whatever is there—regardless of age, there are no props available for anyone, walking or not.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. I understand the member for Kennedy is asking about air quality and the better air quality we would get with reduced carbon based fuels. The first thing I'd say to him is: of course that's exactly why we on this side have introduced the vehicle emission standards and why people should support them. Of course it's about cheaper, more efficient fuel use in vehicles but it's also about better air quality.

The second thing I'd say to the member for Kennedy is: I know one of his particular interests is not just the use of sugarcane for bioethanol production but also the use of prickly, woody weeds like prickly acacia. There's a lot of work going on around the world about using woody weeds—

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

Twenty-three thousand square kilometres!

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Kennedy is quite right—millions of hectares of the Mitchell grass plain are covered in prickly acacia, which of course competes with other types of native grasses and plants but also reduces the habitat that our native animals have to make their homes. They can't get through the prickly acacia. He has spoken to me before about the potential use of these woody weeds as a source of bioethanol, and of course that's something very worth exploring. The minister for infrastructure and transport and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy are both very actively exploring opportunities for bioethanol and other biofuels. Indeed, the minister for training is also supporting apprentices to upskill in the areas of biofuels, including ethanol.

I'd say our government is working to reduce those woody weeds, through my portfolio of the environment. We're spending millions of dollars dealing with problems like prickly acacia and also gamba grass—a huge problem right across the north of Australia. It again competes with native species and reduces habitat for certain plants and animals but is also a huge fire risk. We know that, when gamba grass and other types of introduced grasses take off in places like Kakadu National Park and Litchfield National Park, they burn hotter than native vegetation—so the impact of fires is much worse when we've got those invasive species.

I agree with the member for Kennedy that these are ideas worth exploring. I'm sure the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy would be happy to talk with him. One other thing I want to tell him is the CSIRO has recently been looking at microalgae as a source of bioethanol. I know he is very interested in asparagopsis seaweed and its introduction into feedstock for cattle and the potential to reduce methane emissions. Here's microalgae for fuel. (Time expired)