Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting this motion, funnily enough. The Albanese Labor government is backing Australia's automotive industry to thrive with the auto sector's EV shift. That's why we've launched the $60 million Dealership and Repairer Initiative for Vehicle Electrification Nationally Program, the DRIVEN program. The program provides practical assistance to Australian automotive dealers and repairers to install EV chargers, helping Australian small business to gear up for the EV shift. The first stream under the program gives dealerships and repairers a rebate of $2,500 for eligible smart EV chargers. The next stream of the program will support dealerships to install fast chargers.

The DRIVEN program is part of the Albanese government's Driving the Nation Fund. It complements the launch this year of the new vehicle efficiency standard, which is designed to ensure car companies prioritise Australia for more EV choices for Australian consumers. Australia's dealerships and repairers play a big role in our communities, educating customers about electrification, and they are significant employers and trainers of new energy apprentices—which is the way of the future. It is a practical step to help dealers keep on top of industry electrification trends and the rapidly evolving expectations of OEMs and customers. By investing in EV infrastructure, we're making it easier for them to showcase the benefits of electric mobility, meet the needs of customers and workers, and be ready for selling more EVs as part of the automotive industry transformation.

This program provides practical assistance to Australian automotive dealers and repairers to install electric vehicle chargers, helping Australian small business gear up for the EV shift. To disallow this program while the program is underway would undermine the work that these dealers are already undertaking right now. The coalition opposite need to tell us whether they stand with our dealers, with Australian small business and with the mobility shift of the future, or whether they're going to follow Pauline Hanson's One Nation down the deluded and ideological pathway of taking the country backwards.