No vision from the Liberals on electric transport

The Liberal Government has completely missed the bus when it comes to converting our public transport fleet to electric vehicles.

Labor Leader Bryan Green said this morning’s Metro GBE hearing confirmed the Government has no serious plans to convert to electric buses.

“The Liberals are completely lacking when it comes to vision and innovation,” Mr Green said.

“We’ve got an opportunity to create skilled jobs in advanced manufacturing and dramatically reduce the amount we spend on fuel but the Government isn’t interested.

“The Liberals would rather come up with excuses not to invest in electric transport technology than find incentives to invest.

“Metro is focussing on the up-front cost of purchasing electric buses but there appears to have been no consideration of the savings associated with reducing the company’s $5 million-plus a year fuel bill.

“Electric buses are on the road in other parts of the world right now but the Liberals say they won’t do anything for 10 to 20 years.

“Tasmania imports around $1 billion worth of fuel each year. Labor believes we should be harnessing the energy we create ourselves to run our public transport fleet.

“Labor would intervene proactively to convert some buses to electric and provide a pathway to fast-track towards a more modern electric fleet.”
Bryan Green MP Labor Leader