Future Fuels Strategy fails to introduce any meaningful measures

2021-11-09

“The Federal Government seems to have finally admitted that electric vehicles are not going to wreck the weekend and have moved on to pretending they never made this outrageous claim. But the Future Fuels Strategy fails to take the next important step of introducing meaningful measures to support the transition to zero emissions vehicles,” Minister for Emissions Reduction, Shane Rattenbury said.

“While the Prime Minister is keen to brand the Future Fuels Strategy as providing choice to Australians, in reality, it is a missed opportunity that will cost Australians dearly as we continue to miss out on new, more affordable electric vehicle models and instead position Australia as a dumping ground for inefficient vehicles.

“Shifting to zero emissions cars and heavy vehicles is critical for meeting our emissions reduction targets and achieving net zero emissions. Many other countries are already well advanced with this transition, but Australia continues to lag behind.

“It would be extremely helpful for the Federal Government to set national fuel efficiency standards for vehicles so that we can encourage cleaner cars on our roads and accelerate the shift to zero emissions vehicles.

“The commitment to fund charging infrastructure is positive and will help to deliver rapid chargers on major routes across Australia to enable quick charging on long journeys. I also welcome the focus on heavy vehicles and hope that this funding will help to decarbonise our freight sector.

“The ACT Government is a leader on zero emissions vehicles policy and we have achieved a lot so far, but what is sorely needed is national leadership to support the efforts of states and territories and help to make this transition quicker and more efficient. National policies such as fuel efficiency standards and a national electric vehicles sales target are critical for this transition as we have observed in other leading countries such as Norway.

“We can and must do better. Australians want affordable electric vehicle models to be available here, but we still have a limited number of options at this stage. Strong leadership by the Federal Government could help to address this, but sadly that is not what we see in this strategy.

“The ACT Government is continuing to find new ways of encouraging the shift to zero emissions vehicles. We are currently finalising an Electric Vehicles Charging Masterplan to help guide the installation of charging infrastructure across the ACT and will soon deliver 50 public vehicle charging stations across the ACT.

“Our incentives of two years free registration and stamp duty exemption are helping to drive an increase in uptake of zero emissions vehicles, with a 34% increase in zero emissions vehicles on ACT roads since these measures were introduced in May 2021.

“Zero emissions vehicles will be eligible for $15,000 no interest loans as part of the Sustainable Households Scheme from early 2022 which will add a further support for community members who want to make this switch.”