Electricity is the cheapest and most reliable transport fuel.
Australia cannot keep relying on liquid fuel from overseas war zones.
Our proven oil reserves could supply Australia – for months
The Coalition is suggesting Australia could supply it’s own oil. This would involve the government spending many billions to subsidise:
- Fracking marginal oil reserves using toxic chemicals and vast amounts of water.
- Drilling for oil off-shore in areas that frequeently experience extreme weather, such as the Great Australian Bight.
- Converting coal to oil, generating huge amounts of pollution.
- Greatly increasing the amount of farmland devoted to ethanol-producing crops.
- Building oil refineries to mix whatever oil fractions the above yields with imported oil to create fuel products for the Australian market.
None of this is economically viable which is why past Coalition Governments (Fraser, Howard, Abbott, Turnball, Morrison) have never attempted it while in office.
Geoscience Australia estimates our proven reserves would supply us for only 7 months, after which all the above investment would be useless.
All of these assets would also be hopelessly vulnerable to any adversary in a conflict.
Australia still has less than three weeks supply of liquid fuel in the country.
Encouraging EV’s
This is a critical vulnerability that could easily be exploited by a superpower adversary and has proven to be a massive problem during the latest war between USA/Israel and Iran.
More places to charge EV’s
We would ensure an adequate ratio of fast DC chargers to petrol bowsers at all petrol stations.
All public car parks should have an adequate ratio car spaces with at least single-phase 32 amp power sockets to provide 7kW charging. This keeps costs reasonable for property owners. Drivers would need to bring their own cables and pay to park in these spaces.
Car spaces for all new dwellings should have single phase 32 amp sockets for charging. This shouldn’t cost much more than a regular power point to install at contruction time.
Less tax on EV’s
We would have less tax on EV’s or hybrids with over 200km of all-electric range.
Hybrid and electric trucks
We propose redirecting the $10 billion diesel fuel subsidy to support electrification of the heavy vehicles including trucks & tractors.
This could include:
- Hybrid trucks
- Electric trucks
- Hybrid trailers (See https://www.range.energy/)
- Hybrid or electric farm equipment
This would allow transport and farming to continue to some extent when diesel supply to Australia was severely restricted by a blockade or wars elsewhere.
Electric farming
Electric tractors are now available – we would strongly support there adoption for food production by redirecting the current diesel fuel subsidies.
Interstate Freight
We would favour rail freight enhancements over further road improvements. This is to help reduce reliance on imported fuels.
Electic Busses
These are here now and offer a far superior ride quality to old diesel busses.
No diesel busses should be purchased from now on.
Monorails – beating the gridlock on the ground
Many areas are not suitable for high-density housing because there is no mass transport connection.
Existing rail transport networks are already overloaded and cannot be extended for less than $1 billion per kilometre. Melbourne Metro has cost $1.6 billion per kilometre.
At the same time the road network is frequently in gridlock limiting the ability to add more tram and bus transit.
We propose funding the addition of a layer of elevated mass transit to service new apartment complexes. These would link the new housing to existing heavy rail hubs and the CBD. See Monorails for Australia.
Maglev for Interstate Transport
