Thursday, 19 October 2023

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (09:56): We had a big win for our climate yesterday with the High Court delivering its ruling that Labor’s tax on electric vehicles is unconstitutional. This is a victory for climate-friendly transport, and it sends a strong message that state governments should not be making it harder and more expensive to switch to cleaner, greener ways to get around. People want to make the switch, but this ridiculous tax was holding them back, punishing those who chose to reduce their transport emissions. When Labor passed the tax in 2021, it was widely condemned as the worst electric vehicle policy in the world. The Greens fought it tooth and nail, and we are glad to see this outcome for our climate and community.

Transport is Victoria’s fastest growing source of emissions, so we need to get petrol cars off the road and move to electric cars and increase walking, cycling and public transport. The Greens are calling on the Labor government to refund electric car users, reinstate electric vehicle purchase subsidies and finally deliver a proper integrated plan for sustainable climate-friendly transport across Victoria, a plan that also includes more public transport, better planned cities and safer streets for pedestrians and people on bikes, because ultimately to avoid the climate crisis we need to do everything we can to reduce transport emissions every chance we get.