Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

record high prices of petrol in Australia are likely to increase due to recent wars in the Middle East, a diminishing number of significant oil reserves being discovered in the past decade and world-wide demand that is expected to exceed production sometime between 2010 and 2025,

(ii)

Australian oil production has diminished and currently around 65 per cent of all oil consumed is imported, and

(iii)

oil used in transport produces 17 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions;

(b)

notes also that:

(i)

oil companies are still reluctant to market biofuels and are unlikely to meet their Biofuels Action Plan targets for uptake in the 2006-07 financial year, and

(ii)

the Government has consistently undermined alternative fuels, imposing excise commencing in 2012, cutting excise on diesel, forcing onerous testing on small biodiesel producers and providing billions of dollars to the auto industry without leveraging fuel efficiency or alternative fuel conversions; and

(c)

urges the Government to:

(i)

release the report of its June 2006 review of the Biofuels Action Plan,

(ii)

keep excise off alternative fuels,

(iii)

mandate a proportion of petrol and diesel to be blended with at least 10 per cent biofuel,

(iv)

fund compressed natural gas refuelling stations,

(v)

provide incentives to motorists and auto manufacturers to take up alternative fuel and fuel efficient vehicles, and

(vi)

invest in better public transport, bike and walk ways and freight rail.

Question put:

That the motion (That the motion (Senator Allison’s) be agreed to.) be agreed to.