Senator MACKAY (1:30 PM) —The opposition is happy to support this non-controversial legislation as a step in the right direction on controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The Motor Vehicle Standards Amendment Bill 1998 broadens the definition of a vehicle standard used in the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989 to include standards for energy saving, creates the position of Associate Administrator under the act and restores some provisions removed or affected by previous amendments.

I would like to comment extremely briefly on the first purpose of the bill which I mentioned—that is, the broadening of the definition of motor vehicle standards. It is an offence to sell or manufacture a car that does not comply with regulations made under this act. The purpose of the standard for energy saving will be to provide consumers with comparisons about fuel consumption, the idea being that making this information available will be a discipline measure on car manufacturers to reduce fuel consumption and therefore car energy consumption.

The opposition supports this measure. We support the extension of a principle already applied to many whitegoods which enables consumers to look at a product and compare an apple with an apple and determine whether in fact it is value for money or to make assessments based on energy saving. We in the opposition think this idea can in fact be taken further and that this requirement could be extended to the advertising of vehicles, as the shadow minister for transport has suggested in the other place. We believe this would help to impose further discipline on manufac turers whose advertising, quite frankly, sometimes has very little to do with cars. We make this suggestion to the government as something perhaps worth thinking about.

Cars are the major culprit for transport industry greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. While transport is responsible for less than one-fifth of the greenhouse gas emissions, it is clear that we must address the problem and this is, as far as the opposition is concerned, another step in doing that. In conclusion, I wish to restate the opposition's support for the bill and particularly the initiative on fuel consumption labelling.