David Van (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Senator Watt. With the government passing the new vehicle efficiency standard recently, I applaud its ambition to reduce emissions. However, according to industry, there is an unintended consequence that will result in fewer complying vehicles, not due to an unwillingness of the industry but due to the lengthy approval process that new vehicles must undergo to be registered on Australian roads. While I appreciate that the process ensures vehicles meet safety and environmental standards, it has proven to be too lengthy and cumbersome to support the ambitions of NVES. Will the government reassess the vehicle approval standards and processes so that the ambition of the new vehicle efficiency standards can be met when vehicles are purchased by Australian consumers?

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

Thank you, Senator Van, and thank you also for joining with the government and other senators in this place to finally bring in the new vehicle efficiency standards that Australian motorists have needed for a very long time. Of course, these standards were opposed by the coalition, just as they opposed actually progressing them at any point in the last 10 years. I remember Senator Sharma had a bit to say in favour of new vehicle efficiency standards when he was over on the other side of the building, but he underwent some kind of weird transformation as he drifted across to this chamber. He was put into re-education by all the conservatives in the Liberal Party, whom he's now joined. I actually don't know what he thinks about this anymore, and I'm not sure if he knows what he thinks either.

But Senator Van knows what he thinks, and he supported these new vehicle efficiency standards, which are obviously important from an environmental point of view but are also vital to ensure that Australians don't pay more for their petrol than they have to do in the future. What we saw very clearly was there were some senators, including Senator Van, Labor senators and other crossbench senators, who thought what we needed to be doing was driving down petrol costs for Australians by making it cheaper for them to get low-emission vehicles—or making it possible for them to get low emission vehicles. We know that there still are two parties in this chamber, the Liberals and the Nationals, that want Australians to keep paying more for petrol, even those in the regions, who have to travel longer distances and rack up bigger petrol bills.

Senator Van, I'm very happy to have a chat with the minister, Minister King, about the issue that you've raised. It hasn't been raised with me before that there are any issues when it comes to the approvals process for new vehicles, or however it was that you described it. I'm happy to have that conversation with Minister King, but I do think that it is very important for Australians going forward that they will have more choice in the future and will be able to choose lower-emission vehicles, which is good for the environment but very good for their household budgets as well.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Van, first supplementary?

David Van (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. I have indeed raised it with Minister King, and she said she'd look into it, but I think it's worth raising here. So the question is: what can the government do to be able to facilitate the process so that more efficient vehicles can come in in a timely manner, because there is a very short timeline to be met with this? Can the minister tell us— (Time expired)

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

Thanks, Senator Van. I have been informed that it is the government's intention to undertake a review of this legislation to assess how it's proceeding. Of course, if there are amendments or tweaks that need to be made to that system to address the issues that you've raised, or any other issue which may arise, then we would consider doing so. I think the most important thing here, though, is that at last Australia does have a system to bring our vehicle emission standards into line with those of the rest of the developed world. My recollection is that we were previously right up there with Russia when it came to allowing the dirtiest vehicles, the most expensive vehicles to run, and the most fuel-demanding and heavy vehicles. Of course, all that does is put household budgets under further pressure. So this measure is very important to reduce the emissions of vehicles in Australia, bringing them into line with those of most of the rest of the developed world, and also to assist households to reduce their petrol bills at a time when they need that most.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Van, second supplementary.

David Van (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians have shown a keen appetite to drive electric vehicles and also, especially, plug-in hybrids. Because of the greater range and the price disparity, with the sunsetting of the FBT occurring in a few months, will the government back my bill to extend that sunset of the FBT on plug-in hybrid vehicles?

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

Thanks, Senator Van. I can't say I'm familiar with the exact details of your bill, but I'll undertake to go and have a good look at that. I certainly am not aware of any plan from the government to support that bill. Technically it does fall under another minister, being the Treasurer. I'm happy to get you some advice on that. But it's very clear that this government wants to support the introduction of as many low-emission vehicles into the Australian fleet as possible. Obviously we already have a range of tax incentives in place to assist Australians to take up lower-emission vehicles more than we've seen in the past. That will be good for household budgets, as I was saying. It'll also be good for the environment in terms of bringing down emissions.

It is unfortunate that, even after all this time, we still see the coalition refusing to support those kinds of things. They had a failed go at it when they were in government. They continue to fail on this matter now that they're in opposition. They're not serious about helping Australians with cost-of-living pressures. We see them vote against initiative after initiative, including this one.