PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Ms THWAITES (Jagajaga) (16:45): I move: That this House: (1) notes: (a) the record uptake of electric vehicles in Australia, with more Australians choosing cleaner and cheaper-to-run cars; (b) Australians now have access to a greater range of electric vehicles at more affordable price points; and (c) electric vehicles can deliver significant savings for households through lower fuel and running costs; (2) recognises that the Government has supported this record uptake by: (a) delivering the Electric Car Discount, making eligible electric vehicles more affordable for working Australians; (b) introducing Australia's first New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, supporting greater choice and bringing more efficient vehicles to the Australian market; (c) delivering the National Electric Vehicle Strategy; (d) investing in charging infrastructure across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia; and (e) supporting greater competition and consumer choice while reducing Australia's reliance on imported fuel; and (3) welcomes the record uptake of electric vehicles, which is lowering household costs, expanding consumer choice and reducing Australia's emissions.
Electric vehicles are a great example of how the Albanese Labor government is helping Australians to save money, giving people more choice and taking practical action on climate change. At the moment, Australians are responding in record numbers. In September alone, more than 26,000 fully electric vehicles were sold in Australia.
That's more than double the number sold in September last year. For the second month running, Australians bought more fully electric cars than petrol or diesel cars. One-in-four new cars sold in September were fully electric.
When we took office in 2022, there were around 83,000 electric vehicles on Australian roads. Today there are more than 612,000. That's more than seven times as many.
Back in 2022, Australians could choose from around 70 electric vehicle models. Today, there are almost 200. When Labor came to government, there wasn't a single electric vehicle model available for under $45,000.
Today there are eight. That is an extraordinary change in just a few years, and it is not hard to understand why. We are at a time when household budgets are under real pressure.
The cost of filling up at the petrol station really matters at the moment. Electric vehicles can be significantly cheaper to run, particularly for households that can charge at home, with lower servicing and maintenance costs as well. For families in our outer suburbs and our regions who often have further to travel, these savings make a real difference, and we are seeing uptake in our suburbs and our regions.
That's why the Albanese Labor government has also been working to make electric vehicles more affordable and accessible. We've delivered the electric car discount, helping working Australians to get behind the wheel of an eligible electric vehicle. Almost 100,000 vehicles have already used this discount.
We've introduced Australia's first New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, encouraging manufacturers to bring more efficient vehicles to Australia and giving consumers greater choice. We've delivered a national electric vehicle strategy, and we're investing in charging infrastructure right around the country. Australia now has more than 4,200 public EV charging locations and 11,600 charging connectors.
Through our Driving the Nation Fund, we're investing more than $500 million in charging infrastructure and new EV technologies. We didn't get here by accident, and this progress wasn't inevitable, because it certainly wasn't all that long ago that the former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison was telling Australians that electric vehicles would end the weekend.
We all remember that. But now we see, as I said, people in our suburbs and our regions buying electric vehicles, because they understand that they give them a reliable, cheaper source of getting around, including on the weekend. According to then prime minister Morrison, under Labor Australians wouldn't be able to tow their boats.
They wouldn't be able to take their families camping or enjoy a weekend away. I am pleased to report that the weekend is still here. Australians are still heading away on holidays.
They're going camping, they're enjoying everything our wonderful country has to offer, and more and more of them are doing it in electric vehicles. While the former coalition government spent years arguing about climate science and the action that governments needed to take, Australians were actually missing out on this very real choice, a cost-of-living choice for them.
Now we see that the current Liberals want to wind back the very policies that have helped to bring more affordable, cheaper-to-run cars to Australia. They've said they want to scrap the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which would mean fewer efficient cars and higher fuel costs for Australian families. We've seen from One Nation that they are just as busy opposing the policies that would give Australians more choice.
We have different parties here, but a very similar song sheet and certainly the same old negativity, which time after time when it comes to this space is being proved wrong and proved wrong by Australians, who are making choices about what is good for them and their household budgets and who are being supported in those choices by this government. That's because, as a government, we understand how important it is that we reduce emissions while making sure that Australians benefit from the transition to a clean energy future.
For households with rooftop solar, a home battery and an electric vehicle, there are opportunities to use more of the energy they generate themselves, including now to charge their EV. Less reliance on petrol, greater control over energy use and more household savings—the Albanese Labor government is delivering Australian families very real support here. It's fantastic to see this uptake.