Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will never forget my first time in the front seat of an electric car. It was love at first drive—accelerating at 100 kilometres an hour down the Mitchell Freeway in my first drive in an electric vehicle. I had decided that it was time for me to take that jump and get rid of the much-loved Mazda CX5 that had done so well for me and the family, and shift to an electric vehicle. And in doing so I had one key criterion, which was that the electric car we would get had to fit the double pram that Leo and Ruby relied upon day to day to get around with me and Jess. As I took my double pram down to the car yard, I folded it all up and I crossed my fingers that that pram would fit in the car. And indeed it did.

Two days ago I celebrated one year as the owner and driver of an electric vehicle—9,436 kilometres later. That vehicle has gotten me everywhere on every day of the year, be it a weekend, a Monday, a Tuesday. These cars are the future. My electric vehicle came with me when I visited Maurice Zeffert Home last week, where I celebrated Dora Caverson's 108th birthday. She's someone who has seen so much technological change in her lifetime, and there's so much more to come in the many exciting years ahead for Dora. It's taken me to the Bassendean Men's Shed, where members of my community work tinkering with old electronics and building things. It's not exclusively a men's shed, despite the name. Again, they're people who've seen that huge technological shift in our cars, in our radios, in everything. They're embracing that change. It's driven me to places like Miller and Baker, a fabulous bakery in my electorate. It's taken me to the Australian Vanadium workshops, which are also looking at new battery technologies to ensure that we can meet the climate challenges ahead of us. It took me to the press conference that allowed me to talk about not just the future but the ancient history in this land, announcing with Premier Mark McGowan the Aboriginal cultural centre that we will build at Terrace Road car park in the centre of the Perth CBD. It took me to the announcement with the Prime Minister, where we announced that Bayswater and Dianella would be beneficiaries of community batteries, allowing people to store the energy they are producing on their roofs to charge their electric vehicles or to provide stability in the grid.

I come to this knowing that this is a complex debate for the people who work in the automotive industry. I was at the Motor Trade Association's awards night at the Crown Casino a couple of weeks ago. I spoke with them and their CEO, Stephen Moir, about what this transition means for people who've had investments for decades in the motor vehicle industry. I spoke to young apprentices who are learning about all of the technology that they will need to service the cars of the future. There was an opportunity to talk about how we make sure that we get the policy settings right, not just for new cars but for families who wish to hang on to a vehicle for many years to come. But we can't escape one very clear fact: Australia trails the world when it comes to electric vehicle uptake. This isn't the fault of Australians. Australians want to do their bit. From surveys, we see that 54 per cent of Australians are open to buying an electric vehicle as their next car. The problem is that our current policy settings make these vehicles too expensive for everyday Australians.

There are no electric vehicles under $40,000 available in Australia, and only eight models available under $60,000. The parliament can change the policy settings to make these things more accessible and more available. The reality is that less than two per cent of vehicles sold in Australia are electric or plug-in hybrids. We know that not only does that have to change, but it will change. We know that the transition to electric vehicles is essential to meet our commitments. I'm looking forward to it becoming the law of Australia when it passes through the Senate so that we can reach net zero by 2050.

Over the last two years, we saw the now opposition go through a process of changing all of their economic settings when they were in government. They used to complain in opposition about debt. They were very happy to pile on the bulk of that debt before the pandemic hit. They campaigned against debt. They embraced debt. I also remember when I used to campaign against taxes and say that they wanted to have lower taxes. This legislation is about getting lower taxes for families who want to choose an electric vehicle. But the party of choice has chosen to rip away choice. The party of taxes has chosen to keep a high tax on electric vehicles for purely ideological reasons. This bill will remove the fringe benefits tax for battery electric cars, the fringe benefits tax for hydrogen fuel cell electric cars and the fringe benefits tax for plug-in hybrid electric cars. This will build that second-hand market. It will make sure that people might experience driving electric vehicles in their workplace so that some of those worries they have might disappear when they get behind the wheel and hit the accelerator, always driving at the speed limit, when they discover that these cars are as good, and, in some cases, better, than the car that they might be thinking about replacing.

Mr Katter interjecting—

This bill is an important part of the government's wider electric car discount and Driving the Nation Fund policies, making electric cars cheaper, increasing sales and expanding the used car market. This will all lead to the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Currently passenger transport makes up almost 10 per cent of Australia's carbon dioxide emissions. Our transport sector is one of the largest emitters, and we want to work with the transport sector to make sure that we can bring those emissions down and make the replacement products as affordable as possible.

I invite the member for Kennedy—and, indeed, any member—to visit the Perth electorate, and I will take them for a drive and show them the battery that is in my house, the charging cable and the solar panels on my roof. I am sure you will find it is entirely sustainable to have an electric car on renewable energy, and it is cheaper. That is an unavoidable fact. This is the cheapest type of fuel to put in a car today, and it will continue to be so for many years to come. Indeed, the Australian Electric Vehicle Association estimated that it would save some $500 in fuel and $100 in maintenance every year for average families who own an electric car. The data tells us that a standard electric vehicle is about 70 per cent cheaper to run than its petrol equivalent and 90 per cent cheaper if—as I am fortunate enough to be able to do—it is powered from rooftop solar.

On the story of rooftop solar, I think it is worth noting the contribution that former Prime Minister John Howard made on the question of rooftop solar. The incentives that former Prime Minister Howard put in place took us from about 200 rooftop solar panels across Australia when he put those incentives in place in 2001, and we now have millions of households that have rooftop solar and families who are saving as a result of those visionary policies of former Prime Minister John Howard. Indeed, in years to come, people will realise that the important work that has been done to make sure that electric vehicles are affordable for families—

It will go to making sure that we have more affordable vehicles, just as former Prime Minister Howard did when it came to solar panels—a legacy that is being trashed by the opposition at the moment.

But this is not just about passenger vehicles. I want to talk a bit about how this ties into the broader commitment of the Albanese Labor government in terms of making sure that we have a plan to rebuild our manufacturing industry and also make sure that our transport sector has a role to play in the renewable energy transition. We have committed some $15 billion into new manufacturing projects, prioritising the use of Australian made goods, building up our sovereign capacity and making sure that, as much is possible, Australian made content goes into the cars, buses and trains of the future.

As we roll out these plans to invest in a future made in Australia, one of them is about making electric buses in Perth. At the moment the bulk of the buses that I catch—the 950, the 960, the 60 and the 652 that gets me to the Fremantle dockers; and hopefully I will have a few more dockers game to go over the course of September—are diesel. I have been to the Volgren factory where they are produced. The people who make these buses do a fantastic job, and I want to make sure that those good, secure jobs that they have relied on for decades are there for decades to come. That is why we are investing, in partnership with the McGowan Labor government, some $250 million in an electric bus manufacturing facility in Perth. This means that the buses that will take my kids to school will be electric. It means that the cost of fuel for those buses will be less for the taxpayers of Western Australia and less for the taxpayers of Australia. It means that we will have 130, in the first run, Perth-built electric buses—not only protecting the jobs that are there but also creating 100 new jobs. That helps the 300 workers who are currently in the industry transition into green job. This is a great success story. These are the things that we can achieve when we work together. Again I say, when it comes to this renewable energy transition that is going to happen in Australia over coming decades, the more we work together, the better off the Australian people will be.

But I can't talk about this legislation that's happening today without talking about the wasted decade that precedes it. We are delivering on this within the first year of this government, after nine years of nothing. We had the 2019 claim by the then Prime Minister that electric vehicles would 'end the weekend'—an absolutely irresponsible and immature statement. We have some of the most narrow options for people who wish to purchase a car, because the former government sent the wrong messages to the world, saying, 'We don't want this stuff.' What we are saying now, as the new government, is 'Please bring your electric vehicles here; give consumers more choice.' To incentivise that, we will make sure the tax settings are as favourable as possible, in the constrained fiscal environment we face, to make sure that more people can experience the joy of driving an electric car on the weekend.

I will conclude my remarks by saying that this is one part of a broader Driving the Nation plan—a truly national electric vehicle charging network, with 117 new charging stations. I look forward to being able to drive across the Nullarbor, being able to get from Perth to Canberra, in my electric vehicle. I have promised the Minister for Climate Change and Energy that I will do exactly that once that network is built. I welcome anyone who is here to join me on that drive. It would be a lot more fun if you were to join me, Member for Kennedy! I look forward to you joining me for that drive.

We'll have a national hydrogen highway refuelling network. We'll set a low-emission vehicle target for the Commonwealth fleet of 75 per cent of new leased and purchased vehicles by 2025. We'll combine that with our commitment to get the Australian Public Service to net zero by 2030; an 82 per cent renewable energy mix by 2030; significant investment in the country's electricity grid, community batteries and solar banks. And we'll have those 9,000 households in Bayswater being able to access a community battery, if they choose, to charge their car.

I hope that, before this comes to a vote, those in the opposition find it within themselves to vote for a tax cut. I know they find it very hard to vote for a tax cut. It's not something that would be naturally in their political DNA to vote for a tax cut, but, on this occasion, I urge the opposition to find it within themselves to vote for a tax cut so Australian families can get the affordable cars, the cars of the future, the electric cars that are going to power us towards net zero by 2050.

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