Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying earlier today, the Road Vehicle Standards Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 has been a long time coming—17 years since the Motor Vehicle Standards Act, which it's replacing, was last reviewed. What we are doing here today is adding an extra year of delay before this new road vehicle standards bill is implemented.

Look, it's been a long time coming; I know that. By the time we get to the end, it looks like it's going to be worth it. What I want to focus on now, however, is another piece of legislation related to motor vehicles that is just as long time coming that is not getting the attention it needs, and that is the potential legislation around vehicle emissions. The Greens call upon the government, at the same time as its acting on road vehicle standards, to get its house in order on vehicle emissions. It's now been four years since the ministerial forum on vehicle emissions was set up, and it has achieved almost nothing. It is absolutely ploughing along in the slow lane. We've had four years of deliberation. We've had four infrastructure ministers. We've had discussion papers; we've had draft regulatory impact statements; and the only thing we have to show after those four years is a commitment from this government that we'll reduce the sulphur content of our fuel by 2027. 2027! After lobbying by the industry has had its impact, we have a firm commitment that in almost a decade's time we'll reduce the sulphur content to a standard that the European Union has had since 2009. That means that in total we're looking at virtually a two-decade delay in getting decent motor vehicle emissions standards operational in this country. How inspiring! What that means is that we are now the dumping ground of the worst performing variants of each and every vehicle on the world market, and we continue to have rising carbon pollution across our transport sector. It's the fastest growing sector of the last 30 years. Now a fifth of our carbon pollution comes from transport, and the lack of action on motor vehicle emissions standards is an incredibly significant part of why our transport pollution continues to rise year on year.

We have positively anaemic growth in electric vehicle uptake, while the rest of the world races on. The government's own regulatory impact statement on vehicle emissions showed the average driver is losing over $500 a year from increased fuel consumption. We know that 1,500 people are dying each year in Australia from air pollution billowing out of our cars and trucks, and there are many more hospitalisations and days lost to illness.

The work has been done on the model for vehicle emissions. Just like on the road vehicle standards, we're coming to the end of that work and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We can be doing that on vehicle emissions standards as well. The work has been done. I know it and the government knows it. But the government ran scared when industry started leaking to TheDaily Telegraph, the climate deniers came for it with baseball bats and their late-night-bully pulpits, and the big manufacturers and the oil and gas lobby came knocking on its door. You're looking for every excuse in the book to fight against the public interest. Well, you now have the opportunity to bring that legislation on vehicle pollution and fuel economy to the parliament. You've got a new parliament. Now is your opportunity—a whole clean slate. You can bring that legislation to parliament and deal with this mess. You could have it in place at the same time as the new road vehicle standards regime.

I want to conclude by saying that, yes, the Greens support this bill. But we call on the government to seize the moment. You can do it! You can tell the rent-seekers and their cheerleaders to get out of the way, and you can deliver on new laws that will save Australians money, protect their health, jump start the domestic electric vehicle industry and help us meet our Paris targets. The only thing standing in the way is yourselves.