Electric Vehicles

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): Final supplementary: Treasurer, can you understand the damage that is being caused by the uncertainty that you are creating by announcing a brand-new tax but having absolutely no idea how it will work?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:24): No, I can't understand the answer to that particular question. It makes no sense at all. The road user charge, as I indicated yesterday, will simply replace a road user charge, which is the fuel excise, which currently funds the road maintenance and funding of our particular roads.

As we move inevitably, as everyone tells me, to a zero emissions society by 2015, which seems to be the agreed policy position of all political parties in South Australia, an aspect of that will be that all of our vehicles will be electric vehicles. Currently, virtually all vehicles pay a fuel excise, which helps to maintain our roads. There are very few—a small number, less than 2,000 to 3,000, so I am advised—zero emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles currently in South Australia.

If we inevitably come to a situation where every vehicle in the state is an electric vehicle and there is no fuel excise being collected to help fund the maintenance of roads, there is a simple question: what will governments, Labor or Liberal, do in relation to the funding of road maintenance? It is a no-brainer that in some way those who use the roads need to help fund the roads. The former Labor government, of which the Leader of the Opposition was a member and which he obviously supported, was obviously involved in relation to the negotiations of these particular issues. So he's been outed; the former Labor government has been outed in relation to the issue—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The conversations across the—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The conversations across the chamber are out of order, and that goes for members on both sides of the house. The Treasurer has the call.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Leader of the Opposition will let the Treasurer talk; he will be quiet.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The Leader of the Opposition will have the opportunity early next year to express his view, where he is clearly indicating that the Labor Party is going to oppose the legislation, even though his leader has not indicated that publicly at this particular stage. Clearly, the Leader of the Opposition in this chamber is indicating a different position, as it stands, to the Leader of the Opposition in another chamber.