Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Pocock, you are right. The Albanese government is committed to delivering fuel efficiency standards, something that should have happened in Australia a very long time ago, and we have previously committed to delivering those standards as soon as possible. We did also say that we would take the time to get the design right. We hoped that it would be completed at the end of this year but the reality is it is a complex matter and it may stretch into the new year but we are firmly committed to getting this in place as quickly as we can. For anyone who is wondering about why it hasn't been done yet I, again, invite you to take a look at those opposite, because it was those opposite whose attitude to electric vehicles was that they would 'end the weekend', so for 10 years we had no action whatsoever under the coalition to do anything about electric vehicles, anything about fuel efficiency standards. What that has resulted in is Australia joining Russia as one of the only advanced economies without fuel efficiency standards. What an effort to congratulate yourselves on after 10 years of government, being right in line with Russia in delivering no fuel efficiency standards because you preferred to run around and run ridiculous campaigns about electric vehicles 'ending the weekend'.

Senator Pocock, I can assure you that this is something that the Albanese government takes seriously. We are committed to delivering those standards. In the meantime, what we've done is get electric vehicle sales up from two per cent of new car sales when we when came to office to almost nine per cent for the first three-quarters of this year. Now, more than two-thirds of the electric vehicles on Australia's roads today have been added under this government in only 18 months period of time. We've made electric vehicles cheaper. We've got more public chargers out in Australia. We're getting more choice into the market, and we'll be delivering fuel efficiency standards as well. (Time expired)