Question Time

Electric Vehicles

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): My question is to the Premier. Did the Premier sign off on the tax on electric vehicles and, if so, why?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:05): I am not sure whether the Leader of the Opposition has been following this, but we haven't introduced the bill yet. We have said in the state budget that we will be looking to put a user charge on those people who have electric vehicles. We think that all people who use roads in South Australia should make a contribution, and that aligns with what the people of South Australia believe as well. Can I make it really clear that we do believe very strongly that we will be making a transition to electric vehicles, not just here in South Australia but right around the world.

That is why, last week, we announced $18.2 million to go into our EV strategy. A large part of that is actually setting up a charging network across our state. What we know is that people want to make the transition, but at the moment there are a couple of things that are holding them back. We all know we are heading towards price and benefit parity, probably in the next five years, but to really realise the full benefits of this transition we need to have a network—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Reynell!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for charging infrastructure across our state. At the moment, because of the extraordinarily low numbers, the private sector is not in a position to provide this charging infrastructure, so we have allocated money in our budget to facilitate that, to make sure that augmentation can be made, not just in metropolitan Adelaide, which is, if you like, the easy part, but to actually have that network across the state. Part of that $18.2 million is $3 million, which is going to go into smart charging infrastructure, which will allow the EVs to feed into the grid.

I want to commend the Minister for Energy and Mining in South Australia, working with the entire cabinet, for looking at this practice around the world in terms of that charging infrastructure and network and bringing it to cabinet. So there is a significant investment that is going to go—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —into that charging infrastructure, and so it should. We have also announced that we want to make the transition of our own fleet in South Australia. We have hybrid cars in our fleet at the moment, but we also now have, for the first time, electric vehicles in our fleet. What we know is that the people who are using these vehicles are enjoying those vehicles. We can see that people are going to move over, and we need to be part of that here in South Australia as well. We note that other jurisdictions around Australia are also looking at this matter. It seems odd—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that those opposite have ruled out the possibility of a user charge before they have actually even seen this. It really goes to the disposition of those opposite: they are negative, they are knocking and they are in fact ruling out before they have even seen the detail.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: You're knocking off another one of your tax breaks.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have made it very clear that we think this is the responsible way to go. We think that other jurisdictions will be doing this because we do genuinely believe that all road users should be making a contribution to the maintenance of roads and the further rollout of further infrastructure that they themselves will be using in the future.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Wright, the member for Playford, the member for Reynell, the member for Kaurna, the Minister for Trade and Investment—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: —order!—the member for Davenport, the member for Ramsay, the member for Lee, the member for West Torrens and the leader.