Within a month of confirming its first broken promise of reducing household power bills, Labor is set to break another promise by taxing Australians to achieve its electric vehicle ambition.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is outlining Labor’s plan at the National Electric Vehicle Summit today.
Shadow Minister Ted O’Brien labelled the broken promise a ‘Bowen backflip’ that will hurt families.
“Labor is back and so is tax,” said Mr O’Brien.
“The Coalition wants to see more electric vehicles in Australia, but taxing Australian families is not the way to do it.
“Labor’s first broken promise was abandoning its $275 reduction in household power prices, and now it intends to break another promise with taxing vehicle owners.
“We want to see more EVs in Australia, but slapping taxing on Australians isn’t the answer,” said Mr O’Brien.
“We back technology to drive down prices while Labor backs taxes, we believe in consumer choice but Labor thinks government knows best.”
“At what point does the Albanese Government realise that Australian families are struggling with cost-of-living pressures and piling on more taxes will only make a bad situation even worse?
“There’s a role for government in facilitating a greater uptake of EVs and that lies with investing in smart infrastructure not taxing car owners, it means working with industry not forcing consumers to do the heavy lifting for them,” said Mr O’Brien.
Shadow Minister for Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie said “the Opposition welcomes today’s announcement by the government that they are looking at keys concerns including charging infrastructure and the staged roll out by prioritising Commonwealth procurement fleet”.
“People can today no longer buy vehicles with attributes they want, for a price they can afford and for when they need it. And today’s announcement by Labor will make all these things harder.
Australia is a large brown land, and we need a commitment from this government that they will build charging infrastructure across Australia with timelines that are realistic.”
“This is not about making EVs cheaper – it is about making petrol and diesel cars and utes more expensive. Labor plans to increase the sale of EVs by putting some of Australia’s most popular vehicles – like the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton – out of reach.
A 2016 Centre of International Economics report (Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from light vehicles) noted that costs associated with a 105g/km target could increase the price of cars up to $4,863.”
“This policy will add to the current cost of living crisis by adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a new car. We believe in enabling consumer choice for new vehicle and fuel technologies, ensuring Australian motorists can choose the vehicle that is right for them – be that petrol, diesel, hydrogen or electric-powered.
There also needs to be answers about how this Labor government’s plans to secure critical minerals that will support this type of technologies.”
Today, as revealed in a Senate enquiry, The Minerals Council of Australia has stated that we need trillions of dollars globally to invested in critical minerals to make EV’s in Australia affordable” said Senator McKenzie.