Page 3249 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022

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estimated 70 per cent of those emissions are from private vehicles, so it remains a very significant challenge for this city if we are to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in this space. Reducing the number of high-emitting vehicles on our roads is an important step towards reaching our emissions reduction targets.

The ACT is recognised as leading Australia in a zero emissions vehicle policy and incentive. In July this year we released the ACT’s Zero Emissions Vehicle Strategy, which sets out a range of actions that will make owning a zero emissions vehicle more affordable and accessible for more Canberrans in the years to come. The strategy will support people to purchase zero emissions vehicles by accessing zero interest loans, as well as continuing to expand our ambitious public charging infrastructure plan and new subsidies for multi-unit charging infrastructure. This includes the extension of the stamp duty concession and continuation of registration waivers, which allow drivers to save on new and used zero emissions vehicles. The fact that used vehicles are in there is a really important part. I spoke earlier about the just transition. It is about making sure that second-hand vehicles are also available to people who are keen to make the transition but perhaps are not in the market for a brand-new vehicle.

Under the recent strategy, new or used battery, electric and hybrid fuel cell vehicles registered in the ACT will also receive two years of free registration until 30 June 2024. To help reduce the up-front cost of purchasing a zero emissions vehicle, the ACT also offers full stamp duty exemption to new zero emissions vehicles. This means that no stamp duty is payable on zero emissions vehicles sold in the territory, saving around $2,100 for new vehicles when compared with an equivalent fuel vehicle with an average emissions performance. From 1 August 2022 this concession was expanded to include second-hand vehicles, resulting in savings of around $1,600 for used vehicles. This will help to drive the ACT towards our ambitious sales targets of 80 to 90 per cent by 2030 for new vehicles, in line with our intention to phase out new light internal combustion vehicles from 2035.

The ACT government is also continuing to transition our own fleet of vehicles. We now have more than 209 zero emissions vehicles in the ACT government fleet, and this is growing, along with the charging infrastructure to support them. We are continuing to make strong progress in implementing other recent government commitments to support zero emissions vehicle uptake.

That includes the establishment of the government’s fleet advisory service, which helps businesses, companies and organisations with a fleet, to share the knowledge that the ACT government has developed in transitioning our own fleet. We freely share that knowledge with others to help them get over some of the hurdles with working out how to do it, to make it easier for them. It is a really practical initiative and I think it is a great example of using the knowledge that the government has gleaned in doing our own work to transition the ACT government to being a zero emissions organisation, to help others get to the same place.

In that vein, the ACT is preparing to electrify our city and transition away from the use of fossil fuel gas by 2045. The government will lead by example by achieving the transition to zero emissions by 2040, ahead of our community target for zero emissions in 2045. As part of this transition, government will electrify its own fossil fuel gas systems in facilities such as schools, medical centres and office buildings.


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