Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We've heard significant detail of the new tax on heavy vehicles, on four-by-fours, on SUVs and on utes, and we've heard about some of the impacts that will have. I want to go through a comparison, but first I want to take you to where my heart lies, and that's in the bush. Utes and four-by-fours are the tools of the trade in the bush; they're not an optional extra. You need a ute; you need a four-by-four. You need it if you're in the mining industry. You need it if you're in the agricultural industry. So, these harmless sounding national vehicle emission standards—'Oh, we're just making fuel emission standards a bit tighter so efficiency improves'—are actually a direct cost on our farmers, on our mining industries, on our tradies, on anyone who needs a four-by-four or a ute for their livelihoods.

So why are we doing this? This is very clearly a form of nudge economics. This is a form of behavioural economics. The government, because of their particular view of the world, are trying to change people's behaviour. Let me give you an example of the way this economic coercion will work—economic coercion using these fuel efficiency standards to force Australian families into particular choices. Let's compare two cars, a Tesla Model 3—around $62,000—and a Prado, a very popular car in Australia, out in the bush as well as in the cities, because people want to fit their family in a car; they want to be able to tow a caravan on the weekends and they want to be able to go off road occasionally. The Prado has a sticker price of $63,000. So you've got two cars with prices within $1,000 of each other. What will these national vehicle emission standards do to the prices of those cars, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries? The government have hidden their modelling. They won't tell us what they think the impact will be, so the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries have had to do their own modelling. When they ran the government's proposal through their model they discovered that the price of the Tesla Model 3 will drop by $15,000 and the price of the Toyota Prado will go up by $4,000 to $5,000—a $20,000 differential. So, if you're a family with three kids who likes to get away on the weekend, suddenly you are faced with a $20,000 price differential between the car you would like—the Prado—and the Tesla.

I've got nothing against electric cars—fabulous technology, and if you're just based in the city, a perfectly good choice, and a lot of people make that choice for themselves. But this is economic coercion from the government to force them into that choice: a $20,000 effective penalty if they choose the Toyota Prado over the Tesla. This is not the way our governments should operate. This will affect tradies, farmers and people in the mining industry, but it will also affect mums and dads and families who just want to tow a caravan on the weekend and get away or go offroad. This is not a fair proposal, and it should be shelved immediately.