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The alleged culprit? Fuel emissions standards, the likes of which the United States has had for half a century.
“It’s astounding that we haven’t done it until now,” said Matt Grudnoff, an economist at the Australia Institute, a think tank that has called for car emissions standards. “It’s the lowest of low-hanging fruit.”
Australia’s laissez-faire automobile attitude puts it in ignoble company. Russia, Turkey and Indonesia are the only other G-20 nations without any mandatory fuel emissions standards. The United States introduced them in the 1970s.
As a result, the birthplace of the diesel-drenched “Mad Max” movies has become an “automotive Third World” and a “dumping ground for older and less efficient vehicles,” in the words of one Volkswagen executive. Some popular Australian cars emit almost 50 percent more pollutants than their overseas counterparts.
Now, however, Australia’s decades-long run of “rolling coal,” or deliberately belching exhaust, appears to be coming to an end.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor government has introduced a plan to limit the average emissions of automobiles a carmaker sells in Australia each year. Companies will still be able to sell high-emitting vehicles, but they’ll have to offset them with less polluting cars or pay penalties. The regulations would bring the country in line with the United States by 2028.
“These sorts of standards are pretty common practice around the rest of the world,” Chris Bowen, the minister for climate change and energy, has said. “So, we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
Bowen calls them “common sense” changes. But opposition figures, including Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton, have attacked the plans as a “ute tax” and a “war on tradies.”
“The cost of Australia’s favorite family cars could increase by up to $25,000, under Anthony Albanese’s proposed new car and ute tax,” Dutton tweeted last month, citing a figure equivalent to about $16,500.
The government rejects that figure, saying the introduction of fuel emissions standards in other countries led to little or no increase in car prices. One independent think tank estimates average prices could go up by 1 percent. Moreover, Australians will save an average of around $650 each year at the gas pump, according to Bowen.
But the criticism comes amid continued concerns over the cost of living Down Under. Inflation is easing, but interest rates, rents and gas prices remain high. The economy is likely to take center stage in next year’s election.
Treating climate change as a culture war is nothing new in Australia. The previous prime minister, Liberal Scott Morrison, brandished a piece of coal in Parliament and accused Labor of trying to “end the weekend” with electric vehicles.
His conservative coalition’s heavy defeat in 2022 led some to speculate that Australia’s divisive “climate wars” were finally over. But the furor over fuel emissions standards shows that prognostication was premature.
The fuel emissions standards aren’t the only environmental policy facing a backlash. To meet its broader goal of cutting emissions by 43 percent by 2030, the Albanese government has said it will boost the development of renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind farms. The aim is for 82 percent of Australia’s electricity to come from renewable energy sources by the end of the decade.
Even as solar and wind farms sprout up around the world, however, the very idea of renewable energy has come under attack in Australia.
Last month, hundreds of people gathered outside Parliament to protest “reckless renewables.” Some of the speakers — who included conservative lawmakers — claimed renewable energy projects were marring the countryside and selling out the nation to foreign companies. One suggested the use of prime agricultural land for solar panels would force Australians to “eat bugs.” Many protesters clutched signs opposing particular solar or offshore wind farms, with pictures of suffering whales.
Much of the movement is fueled by misinformation, however. There is no evidence that marine life is endangered by wind turbines, scientists say. And an article circulating on Facebook that claimed offshore wind projects near Sydney would kill 400 whales per year turned out to be a fake.
“It’s very hard for the right-wing culture warriors to go out there and say ‘climate change isn’t happening’ because it clearly is,” said Quentin Hanich, the editor of Marine Policy, the academic journal in which the fake article claimed to have been published. “So what they are trying to do now is a different tactic of delay and confusion, where they are going out and either creating distractions like nuclear power or undermining support for renewables through misinformation.”
Nuclear power has become a frequent talking point for Dutton, whose office did not respond to a request for comment. The opposition leader has called for small modular nuclear reactors in Australia. But the technology hasn’t proved to be commercially viable yet, and one U.S. project recently collapsed. Even if small modular nuclear reactors do work, they would be far more expensive than renewables, according to experts.
“I don’t think the coalition every actually wants to build nuclear power stations,” said Grudnoff, the Australia Institute economist. “They understand how hideously expensive it would be, how it would jack up electricity prices for consumers. What they want is a policy that does nothing, so they can say they have a policy.”
Gerard Rennick, a conservative senator and climate change skeptic who spoke at the protest, said nuclear power should “absolutely be part of the solution.” He conceded that Australia needed to think of a post-coal future but scoffed at the idea that that future lay in renewable energy projects, which he has called a “scam.”
Whether it is renewable energy projects or fuel efficiency standards, Rennick said Australians were being “forced to pay for an ideology.” Asked whether Australia risked falling behind the rest of the world, he was blunt.
“I don’t care what the rest of the world does,” Rennick said in an interview. “I want to know what the cost is for Australians.”
Tony Weber, CEO of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, which represents automakers and importers, said that his organization isn’t against all fuel emissions standards, but that the government’s proposal was “too soon and too ambitious.” Like Dutton and Rennick, he warned of big price increases, which he said could lead Australians to hold off on buying new cars, resulting in an “an older and dirtier fleet.”
An early test of the proposal came this month, when there was an election in suburban Melbourne. An outpouring of angry ute drivers never materialized, and the Labor candidate won.
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