Ms KERNOT (11:26 AM) —This bill is welcomed by the opposition as a step forward in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The bill widens the definition of a vehicle standard for new motor vehicles to include standards for energy saving. At the moment, the Motor Vehicle Standards Act defines a vehicle standard as having three characteristics: being designed to make road vehicles safe to use, or to control the emission of gas, particles or noise from road vehicles, or to secure road vehicles against theft.

This bill adds a new design parameter to that definition by adding the words `to promote the saving of energy', and that will enable the development of additional standards designed to do just that. Once these new standards are developed, they will be included in regulations made under the Motor Vehicles Standards Act 1989 and they will become mandatory in Australian design rules applicable, Australia wide, to new vehicles.

The government initially intends to use this new standard to develop an Australian design rule for model specific, fuel efficiency labelling, although it is important to note that these amendments do not preclude other standards from being developed. Fuel consumption labelling forms part of the government's environmental strategy for the automotive industry, included in its 1997 climate change package. The new Australian design rule is being developed by the Australian Greenhouse Office in consultation with the Federal Office of Road Safety. Once that rule is developed and introduced, all new cars will carry fuel efficiency labelling setting out the fuel consumption of the particular vehicle. This means that new car buyers will have an easy comparison of fuel consumption between vehicles, like we have with fridges, with the stickers with stars on them. I think it helps.

I also think it would be good—and I would ask the minister to take this on board for consideration—to take the opportunity offered by the new design rule to look at extending this labelling to the advertising of new vehicles. I understand that the United States has had this requirement for well over a decade now. What happens there is that in any advertisement, whether it is print or television, there is also a label, which has to be carried down the bottom of the advertisement, indicating the car's fuel consumption. It is just another, more public way of educating people to take that into consideration when making purchases. I do not think it is a particularly onerous requirement, and I think it is a helpful one if we are serious about educating people to think about how they individually can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

It is worth remarking on the fact that the 1996 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory tells us transport is responsible for 17 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, with road transport responsible for 87 per cent of those emissions. Cars are responsible for more than half of transport's greenhouse gas emissions and for 10 per cent of Australia's total emissions. Consequently, they are responsible for a contribution to air pollution in our cities.

This bill is a positive step—we acknowledge that—towards reducing those emissions, although we do have to consider the way in which this could possibly be undermined by the government's proposals to reduce diesel fuel excise and what that will mean for heavy road transport's contribution to the total emissions. I do not intend to go into that today. I simply put on the record the opposition's support for this bill and our support for fuel consumption labelling.

Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hollis) —I call the honourable member for Dunkley—in a very bright tie.