JOSH FRYDENBERG

MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY

WHEN Frydenberg extolled the virtues of electric vehicles in an opinion piece for Fairfax media in January, it marked a watershed moment. Here was a politician from a right-wing federal government that has struggled to formulate an ongoing vehicle emissions policy and hands around coal in parliament as a stunt, eulogising a new-wave form of transportation and doing it in a left-ofcentre media outlet. Needless to say, some of Frydenberg’s climate-denialist colleagues were outraged. But he stuck to his guns, albeit without committing in concrete to doing anything to achieve his forecast of one million EVS on Aussie roads by 2030. But the important thing is the genie is out of the bottle. There was more discussion of EVS and their potential future contribution to Australian transportation in the weeks after Frydenberg’s piece than there had been in years.

Whether the Turnbull government is returned at the next election or the ALP claims power, the EV conversation has at least gained some oxygen.

One automotive industry executive who has spent time with Frydenberg isn’t surprised the member for Kooyong stuck his head above the parapet on this issue.

“Josh Frydenberg is a minister who is across his brief through engagement and listening. We [the industry] don’t want issues and challenges being decided by partisan politics; we want them solved sustainably, ecologically and economically. Josh rates answers over arguments.”

It might take years and Frydenberg might not be in power when EVS become commonplace on Aussie roads, but whatever happens, this minister has played a role in flicking the switch.