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

Thank you, Senator Pocock. As I've already indicated in an answer to a different question, we absolutely understand that cost-of-living pressures is the number one issue facing Australians right now. I also agree with your view that delivering lower emission vehicles, electric vehicles, is an important way of assisting Australians to deal with what are otherwise petrol price rises that we see all too regularly. We are working on the fuel efficiency standards, but I reiterate the point that that's not the only thing we're doing. We've already got electric vehicle sales up—I gave you the figures—from two per cent of new car sales when we came to office to almost nine per cent for the first three-quarters of this year. We've made electric vehicles cheaper by cutting taxes on electric vehicles. That can save up to $11,000 a year on a $50,000 electric vehicle, and leasing an electric vehicle like a Tesla model 3 can now cost less month-to-month than leasing a similar petrol vehicle like a Mazda 3. As well, we are delivering more public chargers. So after 10 years of doing nothing and rubbishing the idea, we're getting on with it. (Time expired)