Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year, I held a round table with local automotive dealers, and one of the main issues that they raised with me was that, whilst they are keen to see more EVs on our roads, they are concerned with EV infrastructure—charging station; making sure that we have the charging stations required. The good news for my community is, through a joint partnership between our government and the NRMA, a $40 million grant has gone towards building supercharging EV stations all throughout Australia—in particular, from Melbourne to Adelaide. The town of Marong in my electorate will host one of these supercharging stations. I went out to visit the EV charging station that we have in Marong, and it was already in use. So there was hardly a moment to celebrate its switching on; people were already logging on to the app to see that they could supercharge their EVs.

It has been great news for the local community, with regular people visiting the Marong Family Hotel and the Elmore Bakery, which have an outlet in Marong. It is a little hamlet that is fast becoming part of Bendigo's growing suburbs. We talked to Trish, who was a local using the EV charging station on this day. She said, 'It's just great to be able to charge your car quicker than getting a coffee from the Elmore Bakery.' Whilst we were there, people from Melbourne were using this service. This is what our government is doing—investing in EV charging stations.