Chris Bishop: Transport Minister on the Government making rapid changes to the Clean Vehicle Standard

The Transport Minister says the Government's focused on getting details right - in a speedy change to the 2023 Clean Vehicle Standard - this week.

It originally gave importers credits for meeting carbon targets, and charged them for missing. 

The Government will now slash them nearly 80 percent, to prevent charges landing consumers.

Chris Bishop says they're focused on rolling out change very quickly.

"The take-home point for people listening is that they're no longer going to be slugged with potentially thousands of dollars of extra charges just for buying a car next year."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If the government promising imported new and newsed vehicle is

(00:02):
going to get cheaper. They're cutting charges relating to the
clean car standards by almost eighty percent. Now you remember
these standards they brought into encourage importers to bring in
evs and cleaned cars. Turns out we're not actually buying them.
Chris Bishops to Transport Minister, good evening, Good evening, So
can you give us you're doing this quickly and urgently.
What's the quick fix? Four?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, the standard gets tighter on the first of January
twenty twenty six, so unless we act, there will be
potentially one hundreds, if not thousands of dollars added to
the cost of new and imported cars. The clean car
standards started in twenty twenty three. It's a previous government thing.
We changed it in twenty twenty four to bring it

(00:43):
into line with Australia, to essentially soften it a bit,
make it easier for people to comply with. But unfortunately,
over the last eighteen months or so, the bottom's falling
out of the EV market and the people who are
actually doing the imports actually can't get the supply of
evs and hybrids such that the scheme is going to fail.
So basically, unless we act, there's about two hundred and

(01:06):
sixty four million dollars worth of penalties that are currently
sitting on the box of car importers that will likely
be passed along to consumers through higher prices. So we
need to act, and we're going to do that quickly,
and it'll be done by the end of the year,
end of this week.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Are you wiping those penalties?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
What we're doing is reducing the gets technical but we
are reducing the the per gram of CO two charge.
So look, basically, the way it works is if you
bring in a gas guzzler, you've got to offset it
with an EV, right, And if you bring in a
gas guzzler, you pay a penalty, and if you bring

(01:44):
in an EV you get a credit, and it's meant
to balance out over time. But what's happened is that
it hasn't worked out like that because people aren't bringing
enough evs and people aren't buying them. And also the
importers can't get the supply of the evs because you've
got supply constraints coming out of Japan. So you've got
all of these hoards who are sitting there with all
of these penalties that will end up being passed on

(02:04):
to consumers, in some cases by thousands of dollars per
car for quite common car brands. So we're going to
reduce the charge of CO two for new vehicles and
for used vehicles. We're going to extend the credits held
by importers through the December twenty twenty eight okay, and
a full review of the scheme.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Okay, I understand that. But if you what about penalties
they've already incurred for bringing in gas guzzlers that are
sitting on their books. What happens to that?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, the advice we've received is that over time, over
the next two years or so, the reduction in the
price per gram of CO two will allow people to
be made whole over the next couple of years, so
twenty six and twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, So they would just sit and deficit until it
balances itself out with more evs coming on stream.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
That's the plan. And if you've got the credits don't
expire till thirty one December twenty twenty eight. This is
supported by the both news in the used car industry.
We've been working with them over the last few weeks
months to get it right.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
So what does this mean? Does this mean we don't
care about the environment for screw?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Climate change doesn't mean that, It just means I mean, look,
every country in the OECD except for Russia, has a
clean vehicle standard or some type right, and actually the
car industry supports a clean vehicle standard. The issue is
just actually getting the details right. And the last guy's
labour's scheme was a disaster. If you think the numbers
look bad, now imagine what it would be if they

(03:29):
were still happening. We made some changes, but we're making
some further changes very quickly. The take home point for
people listening is that they're no longer going to be
slugged with potentially thousands of dollars of extra charges just
for buying a car next year.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
All right, well, what's a car? A name of car
and how much will I save?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Well, for example, Toyota Hias for example, the maximum potential
savings on that one or fifteen hundred bucks, Toyota Highlux
one thousand, a red for two hundred and sixty bucks
for a new year, Celtos for three thousand, six hundred, Yeah,
for a new one.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, all right, yep, good to know, Chris Bishop, Transportmans
appreciate your time. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
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