Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad you spoke, because it's obviously a win-win-win situation. We want to protect the intellectual information of major car companies—we understand that—but we also are a population that's been very used to having our local mechanic, and the world has changed. I wondered why the battery in my Territory went flat. They said to me: 'Russell, the situation is that there are so many technical features drawing off that battery that they only last a couple of years now. They don't last 10 years like your last battery. They just don't last anymore.' I accept that there have been massive changes in the automotive industry, and Australia is changing accordingly. We want the best of both worlds: we want wonderful cars and at the same time we'd like to still have that tradition of going to our local service centre, dealing with our local small business, which is part of the community, and giving them our business, as has been described today. The debate has been one that I've listened to, and what they're saying is: it doesn't matter who you elect at the next election, your local mechanic's going to get a fair go. I think I've summed up what I've heard pretty well, and we can now close this debate down.

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