Enough with the electric vehicle lies

Australians can spot a liar a mile away. Oh, and we also know how to read. So now that we’re in election campaign mode, is it too much to ask that we have debates that are at least vaguely productive, asks Terry Sweetman.

Few things capture the futility of Australia’s political process better than the pile up that followed Labor’s relatively timid venture along the highway of electric vehicles.

The layout of the party’s website plugging “more renewable energy and cheaper power” suggests setting a national electric vehicle target of 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030 is only part of the grand strategy.

OPINION: The sooner we embrace electric cars the better

Stacked up against the headline issues of investing in renewable energy and batteries, working with business to help bring down pollution, supporting trade exposed industries and helping the land sector cut pollution while giving farmers and the forestry industry new earning opportunities, “boosting clean transport and infrastructure” seems almost a throwaway line.

But, for the Government, that throwaway line seemed a lifeline.

The Coalition Government has turned the word “target” into a dirty word that ought to be feared. Picture: AAP/Joel Carrett

A “target” somehow became a Soviet-style decree that would have us driving shoddy East German Trabants and deprive generations of tradies of the pleasure of idling at stop lights in their one-tonners. That was the alarmist line peddled by Michaelia Cash while Prime Minister Scott Morrison smirked and a captive apprentice rolled his eyes in bewilderment.

How you score these arguments pretty much depends on your beliefs but as the ground was cut from under some of its confected hysteria, it became an own-goal for the Government. Even more damaging was that its Chicken Little alarms were largely undermined by its own ministerial words and deeds and by the actions of its presumed friends in the automotive industry.

OPINION: Don’t trust this dodgy electric car sales team

Toyota effectively threw Morrison under a bus by revealing it has a goal (a target) of making a hybrid, hydrogen fuel cell or EV version of every car it sells by 2025. That includes the ubiquitous HiLux, the tradies’ choice. And it opened the door for lots of talk about the progress and the prospects of companies such as Queensland’s Tritium to cash in on the electric revolution.

It’s expected that charging stations will become more common in the coming years. Picture: AAP/Daniel Munoz

It was a silly moment in a silly season that became bogged down in the minutia of battery charging times and the revelation that we have a Prime Minister with a thing for horsepower.

That was a pity because despite the chosen battlegrounds of political warriors, surveys show the complex mix of climate change, renewable energies and a gradual but inevitable retreat from fossil fuels are large among the electorate’s concerns.

Most people would accept that EVs are in their infancy and that they can only get better and cheaper.

OPINION: There’s a reason we’re not driving electric cars

A report published by The Guardian conceded EVs were disproportionately expensive but noted more developed markets offered more options. The Electric Vehicle Council said there are only four models in Australia cheaper than $60,000, with three more promised this year, and that Britain now has 27 in this price bracket. Bloomberg New Energy Finance projected a rapid fall in the cost of lithium ion batteries would lead to EVs being as cheap as petrol equivalents by 2025.

The Government’s scare tactics don’t seem to be putting off Bill Shorten. Picture: Kym Smith / News Corp Australia

The Government is kidding nobody but itself if it refuses to accept the way of the future.

But as the layers were stripped away it was obvious the Government and the Opposition are not exactly worlds apart when it comes to EVs.

EVs make up a miserable 2 per cent of new sales in Australia, reportedly the lowest among developed countries. However, Senate estimates was told last week that departmental modelling found that would rise to between 25 per cent and 50 per cent by 2030 under the Coalition’s commitment to use clean cars to cut emissions. So just what the hell is the Government on about?

OPINION: Pollies set to get a taste of reality

At the tail-end of an interminable phony election campaign, is it too much to ask that we have debates that are at least vaguely productive?

Our country would be immeasurably better if, instead of looking for weaknesses, politicians just occasionally acknowledged and welcomed good ideas.

Terry Sweetman is a columnist for The Courier-Mail.

@Terrytoo69

Originally published as Enough with the electric vehicle lies