Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said, 'Electric vehicles won't tow your trailer, won't tow your boat and will end the weekend.' But now he says he didn't ridicule the technology. Does he think Australians don't notice when he says something on television and later pretends it never happened? Why does this Prime Minister keep making things up?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want Australians to have a choice about what sort of car they want to drive. I want them to have a choice about whether they use gas or electricity. I want them to have a choice about whether they work in a heavy industry in a regional area or have that job taken away from them, which is what would happen under the policies of Labor and the Greens. That's what would happen to those jobs.

I want Australians to have those choices. I want Australians to be able to plan for their future with confidence. And I want the big companies that make these electric vehicles to get their prices down without the Australian people having to pump subsidies into them so if they wish to buy them they can do so. But the Labor Party want to send money over to Europe to subsidise big manufacturing companies. This is the problem with the Labor Party. We don't always know what their policies are.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it's a point of order on relevance. This went to the Prime Minister saying that he didn't ridicule the technology on electric vehicles. It didn't go to some fantasy policy that he's just making up. We want things to be made here. It's your mob that sent the car industry offshore.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Leader of the Opposition, raising a point of order is not an opportunity to raise another argument. The Prime Minister has the call, and I'd ask the Prime Minister to remain relevant to the question.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm speaking about electric vehicles. Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition didn't know what one was. He didn't know a hydrogen powered electric vehicle was an electric vehicle, and he was the minister for transport for six years. That was actually his job and he didn't know what it was. Heaven knows what he'd do on national security and the economy! The guy's never put a budget together. He spent six weeks sitting in the national security—

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister—

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise, Mr Speaker. I'll return to the topic. Our policy when it comes to those vehicles is that we want to ensure that those technology costs come down so they can be affordable to Australians who wish to buy them. We don't want to pay out subsidies to large companies overseas to make them cheaper. If people want to buy them, then we want the car companies to make sure they're more affordable and they bring down the costs on their technology because there is a large market for it. But what we won't do, I can tell you, is put up the price of the cars they're now buying and that they wish to buy to try and force their choice to another choice. The Labor Party love to tell you what to do. They love to make choices for you.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business can return to his seat. The Prime Minister wasn't asked about alternative policies.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was not asked about alternative policies, because I couldn't actually speak on alternative policies. I wasn't asked about alternative policies; all I can go on in terms of alternative policies from the opposition is what they did at the last election. That's the only thing we know. There's only one thing worse than Labor telling you what they're going to do; it's when they're so sneaky not to tell you. (Time expired)

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned!