Motor Vehicles (Electric Vehicle Levy) Amendment Repeal Bill

Tuesday 1 November 2022

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (11:02): I am very excited to rise today in support of this bill to reverse the electric vehicle tax. The EV tax imposed by the former government demonstrates the blatant hypocrisy of the South Australian Liberals. How can a party that claims to be in support of lower taxes and protecting our environment seriously in good conscience introduce a tax on the very vehicles designed to reduce our impact on the environment? When they should have been looking at ways to increase the uptake of electric vehicles, the former government chose to undermine them.

Mr Pederick: You're bringing in tolls, are you?

Ms CLANCY: Member for Hammond!

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hammond is called to order. The member for Elder has the call.

Ms CLANCY: This levy takes me back to when the Liberal and National Coalition mocked and encouraged the automotive manufacturing industry to leave Australia, a decision with deeply harmful effects to South Australia, including in my electorate, which was once the home to Mitsubishi and Chrysler. Families in my community lost work and skills that had lasted generations.

Good government should be harnessing these skills, supporting these workers and reducing costs to families across the state. Imagine if, instead of finding a way to penalise consumers wanting to buy electric vehicles, the Liberal Party had devoted all that time and energy and attention to instead encouraging a resurgence of manufacturing—at least the components for electric vehicles—in South Australia. What an incredible opportunity the former government had.

When the Liberal Party introduced this insidious tax, the member for Black—then Minister for Environment and Water and now leader of the South Australian Liberals—said the tax was 'necessary'. In a decision that made South Australia the first place in the country to introduce such a tax, he rejected the views of the Electric Vehicle Council and the Conservation Council and said, 'We have to do it. I cannot make any apologies for that.'

Think about that. The now leader of the so-called new generation of Liberals thinks that a tax on electric vehicles is not only a good idea but a necessary one at that. South Australia has some of the largest deposits of copper in the world, a metal in high demand for electric vehicles. The former Liberal government ignored this, ignoring a high potential growth path supplying manufacturing components into the manufacturing sector. South Australia also has an abundance of world-class quality graphite, rare earths and other minerals essential to the construction of electric vehicles.

Instead of devoting time to strategies on how our state could capitalise on this worldwide growth, the Liberals spent time working out how to penalise families, consumers and businesses across South Australia. Those of us now on this side of the house understand the importance of energy efficiency and we all know that countries across the globe, including Australia, are currently very concerned about energy prices.

I wonder how much more energy efficient electric vehicles are than internal combustion engine vehicles powered by petrol or diesel. Well, we can all stop wondering. The United States Department of Energy have studied the differences in energy efficiency between the different technologies. This is their observation: electric vehicles are more efficient than their gasoline-powered counterparts. An EV electric drive system is only responsible for a 15 per cent to 20 per cent energy loss compared with 64 per cent to 75 per cent for a gasoline engine.

They also found that an electric vehicle transmits 65 per cent to 69 per cent of its energy use to the wheels. That rises to 91 per cent through capturing energy from regenerative braking. In contrast, for petrol-powered cars, only 16 per cent to 25 per cent of energy is transmitted to the wheels, with around 70 per cent lost to heat and dissipation.

Why is this important? There are several reasons, but I will highlight just two. Firstly, energy efficiency is crucial to improved productivity across the economy, underpinning wage growth and improvements in the way we live. Burning fossil fuels to run inefficient vehicles that could instead be powered by household solar power is simply not the best use of these scarce resources. Electric vehicles add up economically and environmentally.

Secondly, the greater energy efficiency of an electric vehicle allows for their simpler construction. There is no need for radiators and cooling systems, exhausts and the like. An electric vehicle has literally thousands of fewer parts than an internal combustion engine vehicle. This means an electric vehicle requires far less maintenance and has far lower operating costs than a petrol or a diesel car.

It is not just that electricity, especially from household solar, is far cheaper per kilometre; it is about lower maintenance costs. Of course we all understand the economies of scale for electric vehicles are not as significant as they are for petrol vehicles yet, causing higher up-front initial costs, but the lifetime costs are lower. That is why electric vehicles are increasingly the preferred choice for businesses running fleets, that and the benefits of being a business that is addressing the overwhelming community demand for business action on climate change.

Obviously, many families are not in the financial position to purchase a brand-new electric vehicle. However, more electric vehicles purchased today, whether they be business or fleet vehicles, provide for more electric vehicles on the second-hand market down the line, allowing for more and more South Australian families to see an electric vehicle as a realistic option to bring down their household budgets.

The lower operating costs should be a factor that acts as a positive, but the Liberals put lead in the saddlebags, weighing down the operating costs and dissuading customers from making an investment choice that would be better for them overall. This policy from the former Liberal government failed on so many fronts and, as always, it will be up to a Labor government to clean up the mess.

Our policies are well considered, unlike the poorly designed policies of those opposite. Our policies help consumers, families and businesses; they do not punish them. Our policies encourage investment in resource development, in manufacturing and in innovation. The Malinauskas Labor government will not put roadblocks in the way of the public when they want to make investment choices. Good governments lift; they do not punish. We must and we will scrap this Liberal tax. I commend the bill to the house.