Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the member for North Sydney's Fuel and Vehicle Standards Legislation Amendment (Reducing Vehicle Pollution) Bill 2022. This bill does two things. It improves our fuel standards so that our cars will run on better fuel that has lower sulphur and aromatics, in line with other countries, and it ensures that our vehicle emissions standards don't fall behind international standards in future. There are three main impacts of this bill.

Firstly, there are the health benefits of having better quality fuel. As the member for North Sydney has pointed out, an estimated 620 Australians died because of transport related air pollution in Australia in 2015. Improving our fuel quality will reduce this number. People don't think about the health cost of fuel when making decisions about which fuel to buy. This needs to be addressed through regulation so everyone can benefit.

Secondly, keeping up with international standards on fuel quality will mean more advanced vehicles are more likely to be imported to Australia. This is because, separate to fuel standards, we have vehicle standards which set limits for emissions for new road vehicles supplied to Australia. The limit currently used in Australia is referred to as Euro 5. Eighty per cent of countries have moved to Euro 6 and are planning a move to Euro 7. Australia is being left behind. At the moment, vehicles that comply with Euro 6 are designed for better quality fuel than we have in Australia, so they're imported to countries with better quality fuel. Manufacturers don't want to take the risk that these vehicles will not operate as efficiently as promised with our lower-quality fuel, so they send them to where they'll operate best and where there's demand. Increasing the importation of more-advanced vehicles will mean lower carbon emissions, better safety features and, ultimately, lower cost to drivers because they're more efficient.

This bill links our vehicle emission standards to European standards to ensure that we avoid being left behind as other countries move to Euro 7 in the future. I acknowledge that last month the government started the work on updating our vehicle emission standards by commencing a department of infrastructure consultation. This is a welcome start, but the options canvassed don't include an option to stay in line with future improvements in international standards. Even if Euro 6 is mandated for all new vehicles, we risk being left behind as the world moves to Euro 7. Pegging our standards to global standards will stop Australia from inadvertently being a laggard on emissions and vehicle efficiency. I support the member for North Sydney in her call for better fuel quality and maintaining vehicle emission standards in line with the rest of the world.

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