Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Again, it appears that I appreciate the question more than the honourable member appreciates being asked to ask it. Perhaps the honourable member is a little bit embarrassed about opposing a policy which would save his constituents $1,009 a year in petrol costs by giving them a choice of better cars in this country.

Now, the honourable member in the question that was written for him, has mischaracterised, of course, the policy design that has been put forward and consulted upon by the minister for transport and I. I'm a little surprised the question got through tactics because the chair of the tactics committee is the member for Bradfield. The House will be shocked to learn that he has views about this matter and about the availability of utes in countries with fuel efficiency standards. He pointed out, for example:

So when fuel efficiency standards were introduced in the US, the most popular models before introduction stayed the most popular models after introduction. Essentially, what Americans call pickup trucks and what we'd call utes, like the Chevy Silverado. There wasn't a material change in price and we don't expect that there would be a material change in price here.

What the honourable member and those opposite are seeking to convince the Australian people of is that Australia will be the only country in the world where we introduce efficiency standards and the price of vehicles go up as a result. It didn't happen in the United States in 1975, Japan in 1985, China in 2005, South Korea in 2006, the European Union in 2009, Canada in 2011, Mexico in 2013, India in 2014, or, I think the Prime Minister's personal favourite, Saudi Arabia in 2016. Those woke warriors at it again! That is why, for example, Hyundai has said:

We think we will soon have a world-class Efficiency Standard in Australia and we're excited by that.

See this speech in context