Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) Share this | Hansard source

As I have indicated, there are a range of strategies that the government is pursuing, because our commitment is to reduce the cost of running a car for average motorists. Our commitment, our drive, is to ensure that we take the pressure not only off motorists’ wallets but also off the environment. Our approach is to ensure that these things happen quickly. Alternatively, the former government had 11 years to do something about these issues and, for 11 years, it denied the existence of climate change as a serious issue, denied the science and were sceptics about the whole issue of climate change. Now we have the situation where the opposition wishes to deny an opportunity such as the one which presents itself. According to the opposition, we should have said to Toyota: ‘No thanks. Come back when you’ve got a car good enough for our leading authorities on vehicle technology’—the Liberal Party of Australia! (Time expired)