Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Hansard source

The government has paid out $149 million under the Green Car Innovation Fund for a project with the Holden Cruze. Can you confirm the car will have all its engines imported, two from South Korea and one from Austria, and that it will also have all its gearboxes made overseas and probably its on-board computers and many other components too? Given that it received $35 million under the fund, can you inform the House which parts of the hybrid Camry are Australian made and what the figure is for the proportion of locally and overseas made components for the car? Given that it received $40 million under the fund, can you inform the House which parts of the green Commodore are Australian made and what stipulations the government has made to ensure there will be a high percentage of Australian components in the car? Isn't it correct that the Euro 6 emission targets announced by Minister Albanese on Saturday are unachievable unless there are radical changes to Australian fuel quality and standards and that no Australian refinery will actually be able to make the necessary changes without enormous ramifications for their operations?

On a further matter regarding car industry policy, what is the government's response to the series of revelations in recent days about the serial rorting of the luxury car tax rules? Do you agree there has been sustained tax evasion occurring? If not, on what basis do you reject those conclusions? If you are unsure about this particular information, what action is the government taking on this issue and what advice has it sought?

Regarding the cooperative research centres, the government has now slashed funding for CRCs by another $33.4 million. In the wake of these cuts I have got statements that inform us that CRCs have been instrumental in promoting public-private research partnerships, and others opposed to cuts say that funding should be improved to ensure CRCs deliver the best possible outcomes for researchers, industry and the entire Australian community. Are those sentiments correct and appropriate? Why has the government chosen to slash funding for CRCs, and aren't people who are arguing that these cuts are ill-considered absolutely right?

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