Independent MP Kylea Tink asks Chris Bowen:

For too long Australians were at the bottom of the list in terms of priority access to low-emissions vehicles and without intervention, transport will be the largest source of emissions in Australia by 2030. The people of North Sydney who are surrounded by major freeways and roads are living with the consequences of that in terms of pair air quality. We fought for and welcomed new vehicle efficiency standards but with misinformation regarding the impacts rife, could you provide an update on them, including the expected impact on the uptake and price of vehicles?

Bowen is VERY happy to take this question:

I thank the member for North Sydney of her question and genuinely thank her for her leadership and engagement on this issue and other issues across this Parliament.

Now, as the member for North Sydney knows and the House will recall, Australia and Russia were the only two major economies without new vehicles efficiency standards. The key word is “were”. On 1 January, that changed with new standards coming into force to give Australians better choices of motor vehicles. It was in the too hard basked for too long.

We got it on the to do list and it was done. Opposed by the Liberal Party and National Party despite them trying to do it when they were in office and this builds on what we’ve already done. We’re seeing it having an impact even though it only came into force on 1 January. The range of choices of EVs in Australia has tripled since May of 2022. When we came to office, there were no electric vehicles available in Australia for under $45,000. There are now eight. Eight models are available under $45,000. There are now utes available, the BYD electric hybrid ute has sold well at a cost of $60,000 when it was introduced just before Christmas. These are the sorts of options and choices we want to give Australians and, of course, this leads to lower running costs for motorists.

To be fair and with respect to the member for North Sydney – and she did advocate it and I’m sure her constituents benefit from it – but actually the people who really benefit are people in the outer suburbs and regions who drive for longer distances. For example, an average motorist in the electorate of Mitchell would benefit compared to a motorist in the electtorate of North Sydney, $90 billion in overall benefit between now and 2050 in terms of petrol costs.

(he then goes through the electorates with the biggest take up – most of them outer-suburban)