Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

As I said to the senator after he first asked the question: this is a government decision which has been publicly committed to, publicly announced and is being publicly defended by me and every other minister of the government. We are very confident that this is an appropriate decision. We are delivering on our election commitments. It is not core and non-core—it is not saying one thing to the public before the election and doing something different—we actually said we were going to deliver on a Green Car Innovation Fund and we were going to commit $500 million to make sure that happened, and that is what we are doing. While those opposite might be uncomfortable with this whole idea of delivering on one’s commitments, we are actually very proud of it. What we are doing is delivering. This is the first instalment. This is a contract with Toyota to ensure that they develop their hybrid Camry in Australia. I think it is a good thing. It is a good thing for jobs, it is a good thing for development of technology, it is a good thing for consumers in terms of fuel savings and it is a good thing in terms of the fight against carbon emissions. I hope you get on board and support it.