Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting, isn’t it—here we have a very important industry for this country, here we have an industry that is faced with the challenges of high fuel prices and a motoring public that is looking for significant alternatives so that when they expend their dollars on cars they have the best options, and what the opposition is effectively telling us today is that they do not care if Australian manufacturing is relevant for the future of motoring in this country. That is the import of this attack on providing funding for Toyota to manufacture a hybrid vehicle for the first time in Australia.

Over two years ago, I went to Toyota’s Canberra launch of the Aurion. The Aurion was the new six-cylinder vehicle with very high fuel efficiency that Toyota was producing—the same fuel efficiency as the Camry but with a six-cylinder motor. At that meeting I spoke to the head of Toyota in Australia. At the same time, they were promoting an imported hybrid vehicle—not just the Prius but the SUV version of their hybrid, which is a very expensive vehicle—and the conversation between the head of Toyota and me was about the potential for production of hybrids in Australia. I asked about the Camry and the Aurion and the possibility that in the future they would be made as hybrids in Australia. The answer was: ‘No, that’s not going to happen. We’re going to manufacture those vehicles in the future, we are certain, but in Thailand.’

That is what Australia was facing until this government approached Toyota and said: ‘What do we have to do? How can we use our green car fund to get you to change your mind and produce the hybrid in some form in Australia?’ And this government has done it; we now have a commitment from Toyota that they will assemble the hybrid in Australia for the first time. In Australia we have seen the manufacture of four-cylinder vehicles decline over time and more and more four-cylinder vehicles imported. We have seen diesel take an important role in the domestic vehicle fleet, and I think all of the diesel domestic vehicles are now imported. We were going to see, with the growth in hybrids, exactly the same thing happen. Of course, those opposite would have us ignore that possibility, allow the industry here to dwindle and allow the types of vehicles we have been producing for years, which it is being found are harder and harder to sell to the public, to be the basis for our whole industry.

This government has nothing to be ashamed of in enticing Toyota to commence the production of the hybrid vehicle in Australia, because once they are here there is a chance to build on it. But once Toyota, or indeed others, firmly lock in to production of hybrid or other fuel-efficient vehicles outside of this country it will be harder for that manufacture to occur in Australia. By making this decision, the government has done the right thing by Australia, the right thing by the motoring public, the right thing by the industries that service vehicle manufacturing in Australia and the manufacturing industry and the right thing by the 60,000 Australians who work in the industry. There is nothing to apologise about. Using $35 million from the half-billion-dollar green car fund to get this initiative ticking over is the best investment of that money at this time that is obviously available.

It will be great if that can be built on—if the government can now talk to General Motors and to Ford about versions of fuel-efficient vehicles that they can produce in Australia. Ford has been producing LPG factory fitted vehicles for some time, and clearly, on fuel prices at the moment, they are a very cost-efficient vehicle compared to those that use unleaded petrol. So that is another area in which there may be development. There may be developments in wholly electric vehicles; let’s wait and see. But unless there is a government that is prepared to use its initiative to back innovation in those areas and get the manufacturing done in Australia the only thing that we will be faced with is the demise of the industry in this country. Labor has nothing to apologise for. It is amazing that we are hearing these questions from the opposition at this time. It shows that they have very little vision for this country, and frankly it is a good thing that they are out of government. (Time expired)