Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Republic) Share this | Hansard source

The Morrison government has, for too long, put a handbrake on delivering a level playing field for independent mechanics. Not only has that held back small businesses in our nation; it's also meant that consumers have been left worse off. This bill, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021, is intended to promote competition between Australian motor vehicle repairers and to help establish a fairer playing field for independent operators competing with large dealerships. But why has it taken the Morrison government so many years, and why has it moved so slowly, to implement this scheme, particularly after the voluntary data-sharing obligations the government put in place in 2014 proved to be a failure? For a number of years now, Labor has been campaigning for this reform, visiting independent motor mechanics in local areas throughout the country and hearing their stories about the difficulty that they have in accessing data from the large car dealerships and accessing the codes that are vital to repairing vehicles, most of which, in these modern times, have complicated computer systems.

This is about supporting small businesses. Many of these independent mechanics have three or four mechanics operating with them. They're part of Australian culture, in many respects. I think every Australian motorist understands and knows that they deserve the right to have their car serviced by their local mechanic. Let's face it, we're not experts on cars—very few of us are—and how they operate. You want someone that you can trust. The member for Mackellar might know how to fix a V8 Holden Commodore, but, I tell you what, most Australians don't. They want to know that they can trust the person that they're getting to repair their vehicle. That was the beauty of the local suburban mechanic. A relationship was built up over many years. In many respects it was handed down through families. Once you got a drivers licence you tended to go to the mechanic that your parents went to because there was a trust relationship that had been established over many years, and it was handed down through generations. What was going on in the industry was risking that because people were, in some respects, being forced to go to the dealerships that they bought the cars from. They were certainly encouraged by the dealerships on the basis that, 'Only we can do the repair for you because we're the holders of the patent, we're the ones that developed the technology and we have the codes to repair that vehicle,' when that wasn't true. It is actually illegal to force someone into the position of taking up their repairs on an ongoing basis with the dealer.

This has been something that Labor has been trying to break down for many, many years. We have been campaigning to support those local vehicle repairers to ensure that we are not only protecting jobs in that industry, protecting those small businesses and providing them with a fair playing field, but also promoting apprenticeships because most of the apprenticeships in the automotive industry will go to people at a local level through their local car repairer. That is a great thing for our nation, and we wouldn't want to see that broken down by the advances that we have seen in the technology associated with vehicles. This bill does deal with that issue. We're thankful that the government has agreed to Labor's policy on this.

Schedule 1 of the bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act to establish a scheme that mandates all service and repair information be provided to car dealership networks and manufacturers, and preferred repairers be made available for independent repairers and registered training organisations to purchase. So they are not being asked to give away their intellectual property. The mechanics will pay a fair price for it, but it's about ensuring that they're not excluding mechanics from receiving that information. Labor has been calling for independent mechanics to get access to the same technical information which car manufacturers make available to their authorised dealers and preferred repair networks. We pushed this reform because it won't only deliver savings to drivers, who will have better choices, more choices and easier access to repairs, but will also create a level playing field of independent mechanics who will be able to stay in business as a result. A genuinely competitive market for motor vehicle services and repairs relies on all repairers having fair access to the information they require to safely carry out the tasks on customers' vehicles. The benefits consumers get are both through increased choice and through price competition.

There is also an issue here, I think, of the speed of repairs. If you do severe damage to your car and you completely break down, you want to get it repaired as quickly as possible. Often, if you are in those dealerships to get in to get something repaired, there is a waiting list well in excess of a week. If you have a trust relationship that you build up with your local mechanic, you know that they can probably come and pick that car up that day and get it repaired as soon as possible. The benefits through this are not only with that price competition but also with that increased choice. As motor vehicles become increasingly technologically advanced, the information required to safely undertake those tasks increases.

Manufacturers of vehicles generally distribute the majority of the information exclusively to their dealership networks unless they choose to make it available to independent repairers. But the car manufacturers have in many respects run a protection racket on this information by encouraging, and in some cases almost forcing, motorists to have their vehicles repaired through their dealerships. That, of course, pushes up prices for car services and limits the ability of independent mechanics to grow their businesses and generate more jobs. Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or Ford Ranger, you should be able to choose where you get your car serviced. That's why we have pushed for years to have a scheme that will require car manufacturers to share technical information with independent mechanics on commercially fair and reasonable terms with safeguards that enable environmental safety and security related technical information to be shared with the independent sector.

The arrival of a legislated solution to the market imbalance created by restrictions on service and repair data access has been celebrated by the independent sector. However, this bill doesn't resolve concerns about how independent mechanics will be able to update the digital service records of the cars they work on. To address this concern, the minister has undertaken to direct the scheme manager to initiate a process of consultation between Treasury and the stakeholders to find a satisfactory solution for the issue that will sit alongside the legislated framework in this bill. Given that undertaking from the minister, Labor is satisfied with that element of the legislation as drafted. But it shouldn't have taken the Morrison government this long to take the handbrake off to deliver this level playing field for independent mechanics.

I want to thank the independent mechanics I visited in the electorate of Kingsford Smith, who, on those visits, informed me of the importance of this reform and the challenges they've had accessing data from the big dealerships, and the pressure that that put on them running their small businesses and on the people they employ, particularly those apprentices. I give credit to all the independent mechanics throughout Australia for sticking to their guns on this and for running this important campaign. I give credit to the member for Fenner as well, who led this campaign for Labor, did the consultations and did the work in putting this policy together. It is a great example of Labor putting up a policy and the coalition adopting it. We thank the government for doing so.

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