Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Fuel and Vehicle Standards Legislation Amendment (Reducing Vehicle Pollution) Bill 2022 that I am introducing today legislates much-needed standards to improve the quality of cars on our roads, reduce transport emissions and help bring down fuel costs for Australian motorists.

Now as some of you may know, I am a mechanic's daughter who grew up around engines in the small town of Coonabarabran. My first car was a 1969 Toyota Corolla Sprinter, which I bought in 1986 for $500 and rebuilt with my dad. I loved that car, but I find it truly concerning that under current regulations, it is still on the road today.

But this is the reality of the car market and consumer behaviour. It is currently estimated that there are over 20 million motor vehicles in Australia that are powered by internal combustion engines. Even with a rapid acceleration towards the uptake of electric vehicles, millions of Australians will be driving petrol cars on our roads for many years to come. We need to make these engines as clean, efficient and cost effective as we can for our community and our motorists.

North Sydney is home to one of the most polluted stretches of road in the country. Internal combustion engines driving on the motorway that runs through my community produce noxious emissions—with particulate matter, carbon monoxide and oxides of sulphur and nitrogen—and these emissions are making us sick.

This pollution can cause heart and lung disease and cancer, with an estimated 620 Australians having died in 2015 because of transport related air pollution. This is nearly twice the number of people who tragically died on New South Wales roads in the same time.

According to a recent report, Cleaner and Safer Roads for NSW, emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in the Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong area alone create $3 billion in health costs every year. Fifty-two per cent of that pollution comes from exhaust emissions, while the remainder comes from non-exhaust emissions such as tire and brake wear.

Children are especially sensitive to air pollution due to their immature capacity to detoxify a pollutant load. Vehicle pollution is particularly significant when it comes to children's asthma, with children living within 75 metres of a major road having a 29 per cent increased risk of lifetime asthma.

We often see schools built on main roads to increase accessibility, increasing exposure to asthma risk factors.

These health issues and ultimately these deaths by tailpipe emissions are completely avoidable.

Our inadequate regulation of fuel quality not only is a health risk for our communities but has also turned Australia into what car manufacturers have described as a 'dumping ground' for old cars.

Compared to our international peers, we are driving less efficient cars, which are running on less efficient fuel, which in turn means that households have to buy more petrol to get from A to B.

In 2016, the Turnbull government's Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions found that adopting Euro 6 standards would have saved the average Australian household over $500 a year in petrol costs—potential savings that would be even greater today, given current petrol prices.

Improving our fuel quality is an incredibly important lever in bringing down the carbon emissions from our transport sector, given internal combustion engines still comprise 99.7 per cent of all Australian road traffic. Light vehicles account for around 11 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

Change is long overdue.

Vehicles that meet a higher air pollution standard, referred to as a Euro level, produce less air pollutants than equivalent vehicles meeting a lower standard. This bill will update the Fuel Quality Standards Act 2000 and Fuel Quality Standards Regulation 2019 to bring these in line with Euro 6d, so that petrol in Australia has no more than 10 parts per million of sulphur and 35 per cent aromatics by 2024.

At the same time, the bill will also update Australian Design Rule 79/04 to require light vehicles to meet Euro 6d standards, with changes coming into effect immediately for diesel vehicles, and around 2024/2025 for petrol cars. This is a realistic time frame that pushes car makers to bring modern, more efficient models to the Australian market when we have the fuel to support them.

Euro 6d is already used by 80 per cent of the car market globally. Without it, Australians currently put up with some of the dirtiest petrol in the world, with up to 15 times the levels of cancerous sulphur than in Europe and Japan.

As we all know, technology is constantly improving. That's why it's also important to have the legislation provide a lock-step mechanism with the world's best standards to ensure Australia remains internationally competitive. We don't want to be left behind again when the world starts moving to Euro 7 standards in 2025.

Together, these changes will improve the fuel economy of all new and existing internal combustion engine vehicles in Australia.

While I have tabled this as a private members bill on behalf of the people of North Sydney, it has been designed to support changes that the wider Australian public, and many in this chamber, have already said they want to see.

Some members of the opposition will also have been a part of the 2015 Ministerial Forum on Vehicle Emissions, which also considered introducing fuel efficiency standards and Euro 6. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this bill and working together constructively towards progress.

Overall, this is a pragmatic and effective way for Australia to clean up our cars. We're improving the quality of fuel that goes into them, reducing the noxious emissions that comes out of them, and driving down carbon emissions.

It's a win for consumers and communities who will benefit from lower fuel costs, better health outcomes across Australia and particularly in high-traffic areas like my electorate of North Sydney, and a wider range of new car models to choose from.

It's a win for the automotive industry, which will benefit from clearer regulations and fuel quality that is more consistent with the standards they are experiencing overseas.

And it's a win for our nation as a whole, which will benefit from a reduced reliance on imported foreign oil, and much-needed progress towards our climate targets. We do not need another inquiry into this area.

It's time to shift gears; we need to clean up our cars urgently.

I will now invite the member for Curtin, who is seconding the bill, to offer a few comments in my remaining time.

Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Link to 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.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allocated for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.