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National summit to fuel electric car drive

Australia’s electric vehicle future will be the subject of a national summit to discuss ideas to increase uptake and reduce costs.

Aug 19, 2022, updated Aug 19, 2022
Photo supplied

Photo supplied

The inaugural summit, co-founded by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, will bring together government and industry figures in Canberra on Friday.

Speakers will include Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, independent crossbenchers, state and territory leaders, motoring industry figures and union representatives.

The federal government is being urged to accelerate Australia’s take up of the environmentally friendly cars.

A change to the definition of fuel efficient vehicles in luxury car tax laws would make electric cars more competitive and increase revenue by more than $410 million in the next three years, independent MP Monique Ryan said.

European Union ambassador to Australia Michael Pulch is going one step further, calling for the abolition of the tax altogether.

“The luxury car tax … isn’t necessary anymore because there is no automotive industry to be protected by it,” he said.

“But it makes it much more difficult and expensive for Australian consumers to buy the latest energy efficient and safe automobiles from Europe.”

Australia must also bring fuel quality standards and vehicle emissions standards into line with international markets, independent MP Kylea Tink said.

She plans to bring a proposal to the next parliamentary sitting week in September which would legislate binding fuel efficiency standards for Australia.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi will call on the government to urgently invest in charging infrastructure and discounts on electric vehicles.

“We need policies to push out old, dirty and obsolete vehicles and policies to bring in clean, better, more efficient electric vehicles,” Senator Faruqi will say in a speech.

“We need the infrastructure to power up Australia’s new electric vehicles and our vehicle manufacturing industry.”

The government last month introduced a proposal to parliament to change fringe benefits tax laws and remove the import tariff on electric vehicles to make the cars cheaper for more people.

-AAP

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