Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Last week, with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, I had the pleasure of launching Australia's largest EV-enabled apartment building, the Sierra apartments in Hawthorn. NOX Energy is delivering scalable charging in high-density residential buildings. It's absolutely vital that we support EV adoption by strata communities.

But Australia's transition to electric vehicles is far from assured. Only 13 per cent of new car registrations in Australia, and only two per cent of the 21 million vehicles on our roads, are EVs. The Productivity Commission recently recommended scrapping the fringe benefits tax exemption for novated lease EVs. That FBT exemption should not be punished for its own success. It has already driven more than 105,000 additional EV purchases since 2022. It has tripled the second-hand EV market, and it is delivering, every day, $2.25 in economic, environmental and health benefits for every dollar spent.

The events of recent weeks—surging fuel prices, global supply chain shocks—show that Australia remains dangerously vulnerable to disruptions in our petrol and diesel supplies. In this budget, the government has to continue to invest in sovereign energy capability, maintain EV incentives and stop subsidising diesel under the fuel tax credit scheme.

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