Interview with Sara Abo, Channel 9, Today Show

SARAH ABO: Well motorists could save up to $1800 a year under the government's new fuel efficiency standards as the war over car emissions heats up. That's based on the government's own figures. For more, we're joined by Energy Minister Chris Bowen, who's in Smithfield, Sydney. Minister, good morning, good to see you. Now, as you know, there has been some concern, of course, around this proposal among car manufacturers, but also among the community. You've gone to war with the tradies. No one dares to do that.

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we want to save tradies money. We want to save everyone money. And, you know, Sarah, Australia and Russia are the only two major economies in the world without these standards, which make car companies send us better, cheaper-to-run cars. Now, I understand not every car company likes being told to send us better cars, but some do. Some are supporting us - Hyundai, Kia, Volvo, Volkswagen, Nissan. But this is about really getting better quality cars into Australia that use less fuel. And the more you drive, the more you'd save. So, the average is about $1,000. But if you're in Gosford in NSW, or the Blue Mountains in NSW, you're at $1600 a year, or in the Macedon Ranges, $1900 a year. So, some pretty good savings to be had if people choose to take the more efficient model, and we want to give them more choices.

SARAH ABO: Well, that's right. I mean, if they choose to take the more efficient model, if they can afford to. You're talking about those savings, which I believe aren't necessarily coming into effect until 2028. These proposals would come into effect in January next year. What about people buying cars then?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, these are options that would be available right from January 2025. Obviously, that's when the policy would start, but we'd ramp it up over time, because we do need to give car companies some time to respond. That's fair and reasonable. So, we're taking a very reasonable approach. But these rules have been in place in other countries for years, in the United States, since the 1970s. Now, I think everyone understands in America, you get a big range of cars, and including very big, what they call pickup trucks, what we call utes. But what a lot of people wouldn't know is that even in America, their cars use 20 per cent less fuel than ours do. In New Zealand, it's 15 per cent, in Europe it's 40 per cent. So, we're using a lot more petrol than other countries, and that means we're paying more at the bowser as a result.

SARAH ABO: I mean, of course, yes, this brings us into line with the rest of the developed world, but it's the rollout that is the major concern here about whether or not it's too steep. You just did say then that it'll take car manufacturers some time to catch up. Don't you then need to revise this and water it down so they can catch up? And your perhaps proposal needs to be a little bit less ambitious to allow that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, let me say a couple of things, because we are coming at it very late, you know in America really they were saying, we want you to start making these more efficient cars when they did this in the 1970s. The cars are now being made. In Australia in 2024, we're not saying make these cars, we're saying, send us these cars. They already exist, they're being made. Just send more of them to us, be fairer to us. Secondly, we are running a consultation, so we've put it out. The consultation is closed. A lot of people have put in submissions. Most submissions support what we're doing or call for us to go harder and faster. But what we are doing is making sure that we've listened to all the views where a dealership or somebody has a view to say, listen, we agree with what you're doing, but here's an idea about how you could do it a bit better to make life a bit easier for us. Of course, we're going to listen to that. We're taking those issues on board.

SARAH ABO: Minister, are you going to water it down, though? I mean, I heard you over the weekend. It sounds as though your language is changing a little bit, that there might be some room for you to water these down. I mean, 60 per cent in the next five years is high.

CHRIS BOWEN: I wouldn't use the term watering down. I would not use that term -

SARAH ABO: But you are going to change it -

CHRIS BOWEN: Because we have a lot of catching up to do. We have a lot of catching up to do. Australians have been missing out for too long. You know, the previous government thought about doing this. They tried to do it, they then squibbed it. If they'd got ahead with it, Australians would have spent $4 billion less on petrol since 2016, since they squibbed it. Now it's a lot of money that's in the petrol companies bank accounts -

SARAH ABO: No no, absolutely. They should have acted on it -

CHRIS BOWEN: Should be in Aussie's bank accounts.

SARAH ABO: If you wouldn't say watering it down, what term would you use?

CHRIS BOWEN: But my point is, we've got a lot of catching up to do. Well, I'd use the term that we will take on board good faith suggestions that help us implement it, not people who are trying to get around it or slow it down or water it down. But more good faith suggestions from people who know the industry to say, listen, you've got a good idea here, but here's how we think it could be done better. Of course, anybody's going to listen to ideas, sensible ideas will be sensibly listened to.

SARAH ABO: Okay, whether or not that's watering down, that's an argument for another day. Chris Bowen, thank you so much for joining us this morning.