The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government will make the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) cars illegal from 2035, and by 2030 it wants 80-90% of new light vehicles (passenger cars, motorcycles and small trucks) sold to be zero emission models. As you would expect, the take-up of electric vehicles in the ACT is faster than the rest of the country1. This is likely to be because the ACT is the most progressive jurisdiction in the nation, and not as many people are swayed by conservative drivel or conspiracy theories. This may be why, for the first time since gaining representation, the ACT has no Liberal members or senators in federal parliament
It is almost needless to say that several people have been whining about this already. The Daily Cut and Paste had the misleading headline that petrol cars would be banned in the ACT. It is only the sale of new ICE cars which will be banned. The tenor of the comments on the story in the Daily Cut and Paste shows you the limited purview of the muppets who read it. They called the ACT announcement hypocritical, unachievable, whined that renewable power is expensive and unreliable (it is cheaper than all other forms), called it virtue signalling, woke2, and all sorts of other vacant right-wing epithets.
The silly Ben Fordham, the poor man’s Alan Jones, was also irate. On the RWNJ’s radio station of choice, 2GB, he said that this was just the next “shame campaign” being led by “virtue signalling leaders”. He allowed that it may be possible to do that in Canberra, but not in Sydney, as there are too many vehicles and it would be impossible to charge all of them3.
These poor, benighted Daily Cut and Paste readers and Fordham listeners seem to be unaware that Norway and South Korea plan to ban new ICE car sales by 2025; Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, India, Germany, UK by 2030; Scotland by 2032; Japan and California by 2035; China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Egypt and New Jersey by 20404. There are orders of magnitude more cars in some of these places than in cities like Sydney.
While my opinion of the people who read the Daily Cut and Paste and people who listen to Fordham is particularly low, it is clearly not as low as the opinion Fordham or those who write for the Daily Cut and Paste have of their audience.
Sources
- https://the-riotact.com/new-petrol-cars-to-be-banned-from-2035-as-act-waves-goodbye-to-fossil-fuels/576659
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11023309/ACT-BAN-petrol-cars-completely-2035-EVs-electric-cars.html
- https://www.news.com.au/technology/motoring/on-the-road/serious-concerns-over-plan-to-ban-new-petrol-cars-by-2035-in-the-act/news-story/fd8fc53a67e2588b886fb0a77f2ea04b
- https://www.greencitytimes.com/global-ice-vehicle-phase-out/
