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

I'm also rising to speak on the Road Vehicle Standards Legislation Amendment Bill 2019. This amendment bill seeks to defer the commencement date of the new Road Vehicle Standards regime following consultation with industry, pushing out the beginning of the regime from December this year to no later than July 2021 and then a year-long transitional period before full commencement. It's been a long time coming, as Senator Sterle just pointed out.

The Greens are actually sympathetic to the challenges that are posed by the short time line that's currently in place for industry to transition. We note, however, that the reason we've got such a short time line is partially because the government took so long to pass the Road Vehicle Standards Bill. This bill is about road vehicle standards—setting up the new regime through which vehicles are approved for sale in Australia by setting up type approvals so that every vehicle to be sold gets individually approved as a specific type. It streamlines the approvals, and it has been a very long time coming. Yep, 17 years since—

Debate interrupted.