Coalition to scrap vehicle policy reducing emissions

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is set to dismantle Australia’s climate policies, with reports indicating he plans to remove the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards.

The Standards, which came into effect on 1 January 2025, are expected to:

• save Australians more than $100 billion in fuel and maintenance by bringing in more efficient vehicles, whether they are petrol, diesel or electric; and
• reduce climate pollution by 321 million tonnes over 25 years.
   

Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said: “Before these standards, Australia had become a dumping ground for the dirtiest vehicles in the world — with the cars the US, China and Europe rejected landing in our driveways. On average, new passenger cars in Australia use 20% more fuel than in the US.

“The New Vehicle Efficiency Standards are changing that, by bringing in a wider range of choices of more efficient vehicles that use less petrol, are cheaper to run and reduce pollution. These standards are already a win-win for families concerned about their rising petrol costs and their kids’ wellbeing.

“We are well down the road to cleaner, cheaper-to-run vehicles, but Peter Dutton’s policy swerve is a climate car crash. In promising to wind back standards he is actually giving foreign petrol and car corporations the green light to continue dumping their most gas guzzling, polluting vehicles in Australia.”

The Climate Council said the U-turn on cleaner vehicles would mean:

• less choice when Australians buy their next car;
• higher petrol costs for families;
• increased pollution;
• greater reliance on foreign oil.
   

“Australian kids have the most to lose if Peter Dutton puts Australia’s signature clean transport policy into reverse. Research shows that air pollution from vehicles causes 11,000 premature deaths of Australians every year and our kids are most at risk,” McKenzie said.

“This announcement is more chaos from the federal Coalition on energy and climate. Last week they were ripping up plans for critical transmission infrastructure. This week they are set to backtrack on cleaner, cheaper-to-run transport. They have committed to publicly fund nuclear reactors, but didn’t allocate a single dollar in their budget reply to the scheme. And of course, we are yet to see a single policy that cuts climate pollution anywhere in their platform.

“The Coalition’s policies are a climate dead-end and will generate more pollution from energy, more pollution from vehicles and more pollution from industry. Australians will pay a high price with worsening extreme heat, fires and floods. We cannot risk going back to the dark days of climate delay and denial.”

Solar Citizens is also dismayed to see the Coalition disrupting a key cost of living and carbon savings policy.

“As reported in The Australian, the Coalition plans to weaken the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard if it comes to government. This would be a huge step backward for cost of living and energy security, making Australians more reliant on expensive imported fossil fuels,” Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas said.

“The passing of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standards in May 2024 was a massive policy breakthrough to enable more Australians to save thousands of dollars per year by ditching expensive, unstable petrol prices.

“As it stands, the new efficiency standard supports more efficient, cheaper-to-run vehicles into the Australian market, including more efficient petrol models, electric vehicles and hybrids.

“The proposed weakening of the standard, by abolishing fines on car companies who don’t meet the emission reduction targets, caves into pressure from the legacy car industry — and puts their interests ahead of Australian motorists who want the cost of living savings and health benefits the new standard will deliver.

“The average Australian spends $5000 on petrol each year and this new standard will reduce fuel costs by about $1000 per vehicle per year — a greater saving than the Coalition’s proposed fuel excise tax cut — or about $17,000 over the life of a standard vehicle.

“Making electric vehicles more affordable will put money back in people’s pockets that can be better spent on paying mortgages or rent, paying bills, or helping with the rising cost of living.

“Weakening the standard is a backward move by the Coalition and is a return to the years of delay and roadblocks when they were in power, which kept more affordable models of electric vehicles out of our market.

“With the world’s leading uptake of home solar, switching to an EV means more Australians can get behind the wheel of a car that runs on sunshine.

“Affordable electric vehicles combined with electric vehicle-to-grid technologies will also make cars ‘batteries on wheels’, and thus provide further savings to Australian households.”

Image credit: iStock.com/3alexd