Fresh from a record vote in the State election, the Greens have kicked off their federal election campaign in SA announcing a $6.1b plan to boost the uptake of electric vehicles and reestablish auto manufacturing in Australia, saying that in balance of power the party will push for a South Australian-focused package to support an electric car industry in the State.

The Greens Leader, Adam Bandt, is in Adelaide today to launch the campaign for South Australia lead Senate Candidate, Barbara Pocock. 

Greens Transport Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young responded to the Morrison Government’s ‘Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy’ announcement:

“The Morrison Government’s ‘Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy’ will fail to bring affordable electric vehicles to Australia.

“To properly accelerate uptake we need targets for vehicle emissions standards and subsidies that help put EVs on the road for everyday Australians.

“Australia must also set a deadline to ban the import and sale of new polluting vehicles, just like the UK with their 2030 hard target.

As the US government prepares to wind back fossil fuel subsidies in advance of the upcoming G7 meeting, the Morrison Government has today committed to introduce new legislation in June to facilitate over $2 billion of subsidies to the owners of Australia’s two remaining oil refineries, Ampol and Viva Energy. 

Yet, while dubbed the Fuel Security Bill 2021, the Morrison Government has completely left Australia at the back of the pack in the transition to electric transport, refusing to use either regulation or incentives to fast track the roll-out of electric vehicles. 

The Greens have said that a report of the Australian National Audit Office on a land purchase for Western Sydney Airport is damning and demands explanations by senior Commonwealth ministers.

Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Greens Senator for NSW, said:

“This report is damning. On top of enormous incompetence, it reveals instances of completely inappropriate and unethical decision-making.

“The Prime Minister and his ministers must explain this rotten mess. The buck stops with them.

As calls grow for a $220b infrastructure spend to tackle the recession, new costings completed by the Parliamentary Budget Office, at the request of the Australian Greens, have revealed that the Government could fund $225 billion in job-rich major infrastructure projects for the same cost to the Budget of bringing forward round 2 of planned personal income tax cuts.