Extract from ABC News
Analysis
By David Speers
When the long lockdowns were finally coming to an end in Sydney and Melbourne, some just couldn't wait to rush out and do everything at once.
A talkback caller told ABC Radio's Virginia Trioli their first day of freedom would involve a haircut, a visit to a favourite jam donut shop and a relaxing lie down in a float tank. A quirky combo, but each to their own bottled-up desires.
Last month's freedom frenzy came to mind as the Prime Minister burst forth this week with his first bout of campaigning in a very long time. Here was a man clearly hoping to put the year's vaccine, submarine, and climate change problems behind him.
Scott Morrison was back in his element, making gnocchi and spring rolls, visiting a barber, climbing into a truck, patting a dog, reversing course on electric vehicles, taking a hydrogen car for a spin, and shaking many hands. Yes, shaking hands is officially back. There was none of the awkward elbow bumping we saw with foreign leaders only a week ago.
"Australians", he declared, "have had enough of governments telling them what to do."
It was a line that sought to link the joy of reopening with the Coalition's climate approach. To those who may not have immediately grasped the connection between COVID restrictions and emissions policy, Morrison was explicit.
"Labor wants to tell everybody what to do," he said.
Of course, the government isn't entirely getting out of the business of, well, governing. It's still making decisions on how to spend taxpayer money — in increasing amounts as it happens.
Electric vehicles in the spotlight
This week more funds were announced for electric vehicle charging stations and carbon capture and storage start-ups, on top of the $20 billion committed pre-Glasgow to achieve the net-zero target.
All this spending is aimed at leveraging private investment and ultimately emissions reduction without anything that could be interpreted as a direct "price" on carbon.
This has become a political imperative; a way to maintain faith with net-zero critics in the "base" and differentiate the Coalition from Labor. Yet this refusal to touch anything that may resemble a "price" means even sensible steps, like basic CO2 fuel efficiency standards, are discarded.
Australia is the only country in the OECD without fuel efficiency or vehicle emissions standards for CO2. Indeed, they've existed for years in most developed and developing countries, including the US, UK, EU, Japan, China, and India.
These standards typically apply as an "average" across a car makers' fleet, creating an incentive for manufacturers to push down the price tag on electric and hybrid models so more are sold in those markets. They do this by charging more for their petrol and diesel models.
Without any fuel standard in Australia, no such incentive to lower the price of electric and hybrid cars exists. Instead, car makers openly warn they will dump their gas guzzlers in Australia — one of the few countries with no limits on vehicle emissions.
At the last election, Labor pledged to phase in an emissions standard of 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre for light vehicles. Most of the attention at the time was on the headline of Bill Shorten's electric vehicle policy — a target of 50 per cent new car sales being electric by 2030. But the fuel efficiency standard was the engine to get there.
Labor's current approach
Labor's current policy has no 2030 sales target and instead promises some modest tax relief on electric cars.
On the critical question of whether it still plans to introduce a fuel efficiency standard, the official line is Labor will have "more to say" soon.
Tanya Plibersek possibly hinted at where this is heading on Tuesday, telling Sky News: "Australia is behind the world when it comes to vehicle emission standards, and … is the dumping ground for the most polluting vehicles in the world."
It's the same language used by the car makers who are calling for the standard.
As with its 2030 emissions target, Labor must decide whether to fight an inevitable Coalition scare campaign over any sort of fuel standard or fold.
The politics on climate change, generally, and electric vehicles, specifically, have undoubtedly shifted since 2019. As a result, Morrison has also shifted to the point where he this week tried to pretend that he hadn't bagged electric vehicles before the last election. (The tapes don't lie.)
Anthony Albanese must judge whether the shift in the electorate is strong enough to win a nuanced debate about the need for emissions standards.
In one aspect, both sides of politics are already committed to a small "price" on vehicle emissions. The Coalition and Labor both plan to leave fuel excise arrangements alone, delivering some advantage to electric car drivers who don't pay the excise and disadvantage to those chewing through more fuel. Indeed, OECD Secretary and former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann calls this an "implicit" carbon price.
Is applying this price to some vehicles and not others a way of "telling Australians what to do"? Not really, but nor is a vehicle emissions standard.
Both create some greater incentive to go electric, without destroying the weekend.
David Speers is the host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on iview.
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