Car dealers cane Labor emissions plan

Simon Evans
Apr 1, 2019
AFR
KEY POINTS
Two thirds of vehicles sold in Australia are SUVs, utes or light commercial.
There are 3,500 vehicle dealer outlets in Australia.
The AADA initially thought it was a mistake in Labor’s policy document.
The chief executive of the body that oversees Australia’s 3500 car dealers says forcing them into a scheme to closely scrutinise the emissions of the different vehicles they sell is onerous, complex and unworkable in practice.
Car dealers would be subject to an ”average emissions standards” regime in which if they sold too many higher-polluting vehicles they would need to offset that by stepping up sales of electric vehicles to compensate, under proposals by the Labor Party.
It has been met with a barrage of criticism by car dealers and motor industry bodies who argue they have only a limited influence over the products in their showrooms, and the responsibility should be squarely with the vehicle manufacturers.
David Blackhall, the CEO of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association, said on Monday that of the 3500 dealership locations in Australia, most were run by families or single operators and the red tape involved in the Labor scheme would be horrendous.
“The mechanism is quite simply attacking the wrong part of the distribution chain,” Mr Blackhall said.
“This is trying to administer a policy setting in the wrong way. Even if you utilise all the weapons of the digital age, I don’t know how you monitor it.”
He said when the AADA was first informed of the proposal, it thought it must be a mistake and the wrong terminology had been used by Labor leader Bill Shorten’s office.
Mr Blackhall said it was mystifying to think that a vehicle sales person on the forecourt of a dealership might have to explain to a customer walking in that it would be best if they bought an electric vehicle because otherwise the dealership might not meet its average emission standards.
The onus should be on the vehicle maker to meet the right emission standard, not the retailer at the end of the line, he said. The top two selling vehicles in Australia are the Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger utes.
‘Unenforceable and ill-considered’
Motor Trade Association of Western Australia CEO Stephen Moir labelled the proposal a ”joke” that would be unenforceable in a practical situation.
“This notion that it’s up to retailers to manage emissions is a joke,” Mr Moir said.
He said the policy hadn’t been thought through, and the uncertainty it may create in the market could worsen a substantial slowdown in new vehicle sales already underway over the past 11 months.
“As noble as it is, it’s unenforceable and ill-considered and there would need to be some form of compensatory mechanism,” Mr Moir said.
“With all the uncertainty what it might do is stall people’s decision making’.’
Labor spokesman on Climate Change and Energy, Mark Butler, said the specific details on how the emissions standards would work in the marketplace as well as its implementation timetable ”will be the subject of consultation with industry”. He declined to be more specific.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Tony Weber said the pace at which electric vehicles were taken up in Australia would be highly dependent on what subsidies were put in place by the federal government.
He said it was a ”very complex” area and if a government moved ”too far, too fast” it would risk distorting a market where sports utility vehicles, utes and other light commercial vehicles comprises more than two thirds of all the new vehicles sold in Australia currently.
“The devil is in the detail,” Mr Weber said.
He said the European market showed that incentives and robust infrastructure support by government was needed in order for meaningful low emission vehicle sales to be achieved.
The Labor policy involves emissions being ”applied to car retailers to meet average emission standards, rather than imposing blanket mandatory standards on manufacturers”.
“This will allow retailers to meet the standards by offsetting high-emissions car sales with low- or zero-emissions car sales – such as electric vehicles,” the Labor document states.