We need your help to show our politicians that Australians are serious about climate change and the use of Electric Vehicles. With an upcoming federal election now is the perfect time to show your support. You can help by sending a message to your local federal minister, the PM, and the opposition leader asking them to support Electric Vehicles in Australia.

To get things going below is a sample letter that we have sent to the Prime Minister and below that are contact details where you can send other letters to, we encourage you to send to as many different politicians as you can. If you would like to suggest some alterations to the pro-forma letter below or other people to send to then please feel free to use the contact page to send them through so that other people can benefit.

As we get responses we will post them here, we would also appreciate it if you could share any responses you receive with us all.

UPDATE : We are starting to get some replies in. See the bottom of this page for details.

01/11/2007 - Received another reply. Again see the bottom of the page for details.

To : The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

18 September 2007

Dear Sir,

  I am writing to you before the upcoming federal election to ask that you and your party consider showing support for Electric Vehicles in Australia.

  As you are aware both climate change and high petrol process have been a concern with the electorate for a while now and your party would be showing that you are serious about both these issues by supporting the growing number of Australians who are already moving to Electric Vehicles and converting our current petrol cars to electric.

  Areas that your party can show support at a minimal cost to the tax payer are 

1)      Giving incentives for organisations and employers to provide charging points for electric cars. These require no more than making a standard electric power point available where cars are parked for extended periods of time.

2)      Providing tax incentives or grants for start-up companies in the area of Electric Vehicle production or conversion.

3)      Provide tax incentives or grants to individual users who wish to convert their own Electric Vehicles, much in the same manner as has been done by state and federal governments for petrol to gas conversions.

4)      Provide a more favourable FBT status to Electric Vehicles. Standard petrol cars already receive a discounted FBT status which increases with the total distance travelled, this currently puts Electric Vehicles at a disadvantage as the majority of people using them do limited range travelling.

  All of the above measures would show your parties firm support for both the environment and for lowering petrol prices. They would also provide the strong basis for a new industry around Electric Vehicles and would place Australia in a strong position to become one of the world leaders in Electric Vehicle technology

Yours sincerely

Prime Minister John Howard

By Mail :
The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

Electronically
http://www.pm.gov.au/contact/index.cfm

Leader of the Opposition Mr Kevin Rudd

By Mail :
The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
PO Box 476A
Morningside Qld 4170

Electronically
Kevin.Rudd.MP@aph.gov.au
or
http://www.kevin07.com.au/miscellaneous/miscellaneous/contact-us.html

The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP

By Mail :
The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP
PO Box 1840
Bondi Junction NSW 1355

Electronically :
Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au
or
http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/Pages/Contact.aspx

The Hon Peter Garrett MP

By Mail :
The Hon Peter Garrett MP
PO Box 249
Maroubra NSW 2035 

Electronically
Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au
or
http://www.petergarrett.com.au/enquiry.html

Send to your local MP, you will find their contact details on the following page

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/mi-party.asp

28/09/2007

Dear John,

Thank you for writing to me with your feedback and suggestions regarding
electric cars.

Federal Labour has announced the setting up a $500 million Green Car
Innovation Fund designed to tackle climate change by manufacturing low
emission vehicles in Australia.

I will forward your information to my colleague, Peter Garrett MP,
Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage & the Arts
for his information.

Kind Regards,

Kevin Rudd
Federal Labor Leader
Member for Griffith

01/11/2007

We have finally received a reply from the PM's department. Considering we are in the middle of an election this has to be about the most disappointing "non reply" that I have ever seen. I have never been one of the camp who wanted to change government just because the current one has been in to long but I'm starting to reconsider.