November 6, 2024
Labor is refusing to rule out forcing the agriculture industry, including farmers, to pay for the purchase of electric vehicles across its Departments.
It comes as Labor’s Operations Emissions Reduction Plan 2024-2030 emphasises the purchase of low emissions vehicles (LEV) to replace aging passenger fleet vehicles, where leases are expiring and a fleet audit to support LEV strategy development.
In Senate Estimates this week, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said its strategy to reduce emissions includes the increased use and purchase of more electric vehicles.
Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said in a worrying sign for the industry, the Department was unable to confirm or deny if farmers would be forced to pay for the Department’s new wheels.
“Labor must answer the question, will industry have to pay to meet the Government’s lower emissions target, through increased fees and charges?” Mr Littleproud said.
“The Department couldn’t confirm if Labor’s vehicle upgrades will be cost-recovered by the industry and if its cost-accounting model might flow through to industry.
“It begs the question, will our food producers soon be expected to pay for the Department’s car upgrades and lower emissions vehicles, as well as electric charging stations?
“This will be another burden on industry and when supply goes down, prices go up, meaning families will also pay for this at the checkout.”
The Government’s Department currently has 502 vehicles; 29 of those are electric vehicles and another 25 electric vehicles are on order.
The current 29 are made up of three Polaris Ranger all-terrain vehicles, two Bigfoot Burden Carriers, four Hyandai vehicles, three KIA EV6 vehicles, 16 Mitsubishi plug-in hybrid vehicles and one Ford Escape plug-in hybrid vehicle.
The Department has also paid for electric chargers to be installed at its offices in Adelaide, Brisbane and Fremantle.
Mr Littleproud said Labor’s ambiguous plan comes on top of its new vehicle efficiency standard, which will increase the cost of popular family cars and utes by thousands of dollars next year to subsidise electric vehicles.
“It’s ironic Labor wants to make it harder for regional families to purchase new vehicles, as its own Department purchases new models for themselves and potentially makes industry foot the Bill.
“Unfortunately, it’s easy to see why regional, rural and remote Australia is fed up with this Labor Government.”
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