There is no plan for EV charging stations.
Why is the Department of Climate Change responsible for Electric Vehicle charging stations and not the Department of Infrastructure?
The government is subsidising people with our taxes to buy electric cars but yet cannot say how they are going to build the charging stations to ensure people can charge their vehicles.
Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee
12/02/2024
Estimates
INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS PORTFOLIO
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
Senator RENNICK: In regard to the new vehicle emission standards, will that penalty cost of $100 or $200 per gram of CO2 above a certain target level going to provide a disincentive to car manufacturers to actually produce cars for Australia?
CHAIR: Sorry, Senator, please feel free, but we just have gone extensively through this when you were out of the room.
Senator RENNICK: I’m going somewhere else. I just wanted to put that one out there, because that was the question I asked this morning.
Ms Purvis-Smith: We’ve not heard anything from manufacturers that they would stop importing vehicles to Australia.
Senator RENNICK: So what’s the estimated change in the mix from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles? Where do you target? Where do you think you’ll get to in terms of—say there’s 20 million cars on the road in Australia, what’s the mix? It’s currently five per cent or two per cent electric vehicles and 98 per cent ICEs. Where do you see this policy taking that mix to—the split?
Ms Purvis-Smith: It’s up to each manufacturer as to what mix and the fleet that they provide to Australia.
Senator RENNICK: But surely the government must have an end game here of where they want to get to in terms of percentage of cars on the road.
Ms Purvis-Smith: The government has provided five years worth of targets. It has not provided any targets past that. It hasn’t provided, for example, an end date on where it wants to get to at the moment, which is consistent with other countries. It provides five years worth of targets. So there are targets out to 2029.
Senator RENNICK: The reason why I’m asking this is that we’ve got to then provide infrastructure. We’re in the infrastructure department here today. Who’s going to be building all the electric vehicle charging stations to actually charge whatever that figure of percentage of the absolute number of electric vehicles you intend to have on the road in the next five years?
Ms Purvis-Smith: The department of climate change actually is progressing a program to roll out electric vehicle chargers.
Senator RENNICK: Shouldn’t you, though, as the department of infrastructure, be involved with this?
Ms Purvis-Smith: I think we do discuss this with them, but they are the lead agency. They are the lead department.
Senator RENNICK: I’m in the department of infrastructure today, so I’m going to put it to you: who’s going to build these electric vehicle charging stations—the private sector or the public sector?
Ms Purvis-Smith: At the moment I think it’s mixed. The department of climate change is leading a program with, I think, the NRMA—again, I stand to be corrected because it’s not my program—and has a policy of trying to, I think, have an electric vehicle charger every 150 kilometres on main highways. Again, I could be corrected, because it’s not my program.
Senator RENNICK: One charger per 100 kilometres?
Ms Purvis-Smith: I don’t think that it’s one charger but charging stations. But, again, I don’t have the detail on that because the department of climate change is leading that program.
Senator RENNICK: Okay. Why is it the department of climate change and not the department of infrastructure? We’re talking about road transport here. Ultimately, climate change, however you perceive that, may be the reason. That’s the means to the end here. People want to get in their car and drive and they’re going to need to know. They’re going to be forced to buy, or some people are going to have to be forced to buy, these electric vehicles. They’re going to have to drive a certain distance. They’re going to want to know that there’s going to be enough electric vehicle chargers on the road. So that’s what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about the environment or the climate change. I’m talking about on the road—or, vice versa, when they park their car in a high-rise unit building, what are the rules around having chargers in those high-rise apartments?
Ms Purvis-Smith: Again, the rollout of EV chargers is being led by the department of climate change, not by us. I think you’ll find that there are planning laws in local governments and states and territories around changing where EVs can be, including in apartment buildings. But, again, that’s being handled at a state and territory and probably local government level as well.
Senator RENNICK: Okay. The department of climate change has probably already been and gone. Anyway, I’ll see if we can see them later on. Thank you.
Senator McKENZIE: So 117 charging stations around the country.
