Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021. I have long sought to help small-business vehicle repairers in my electorate and around Australia. Their businesses have been thwarted from working on new cars by the car manufacturers' refusal to share the information necessary to work on today's computerised vehicles. They asked me to push for a mandatory information sharing scheme. This bill is long overdue and very welcome. I know that this bill is supported by the House; many members have been pushing for this. While it has taken some time to consult the industry, costing Australian drivers over $1 billion every year, according to the ACCC, I commend the government for introducing a bill to achieve this aim, to bring Australia in line with the European Union and a number of states in the US.

At the heart of this bill is consumer choice and support for local small businesses. When we buy a motor vehicle we should be able to have it repaired and serviced by a qualified mechanic of our choice, perhaps close to where we live or work, based on price or on the recommendation of others, particularly in rural areas. It is a fair and reasonable expectation. Once, vehicles were less complex to repair. I know my first car was much less complex to repair; I think it was made in 1969, and it didn't have a computer! But all of today's cars have computers in them. Today our choice of repairer has been, until this point, constrained by the limited availability of service and repair information. You need real-time access to digital files and codes for each car to conduct repairs or service. They are usually owned and controlled by the car's manufacturer, tying the consumer to the car dealer. It is monopolistic and plainly unfair to the qualified local small businesses and to the consumer. If you live in regional areas you don't necessarily have a large dealer to take your car to in any event, so it's particularly unfair for regional people.

In 2017 the ACCC found existing voluntary obligations were insufficient to make car manufacturers share the same technical information provided to the dealers on fair and reasonable terms with independent repairers. This applied even to environmental, safety and/or security related information necessary for repair or service of a new car. This all equates to cost, delay of repairs and a lack of consumer choice. This bill addresses deficiencies in the voluntary arrangements. It will require manufacturers to promptly share all diagnostic repair and servicing information with repairers and training organisations at a fair and reasonable market price. It will allow consumers to choose their own repairer, which is so important in regional communities such as mine. The minister will be able to make disallowable regulations to update technical details or the scheme's operation and prevent any attempts to frustrate the scheme. Penalties will be provided for bodies corporate and individuals who fail to comply, and a new statutory scheme adviser will be established to administer the scheme and ensure this is effective.

This is about fairness—fairness for consumers and fairness for small businesses. I thank the government for introducing a bill that seeks to address the great challenges that our automotive repair businesses have experienced for many, many years, and unnecessarily so. I commend the bill to the House.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the previous speaker for her contribution to this debate on the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021. Firstly, I would like to commend the member for Fenner, who commenced this procedure. Sometimes things just make sense, and that's why we work on a bipartisan approach—because this just makes sense. In fact, it should have happened a long, long time ago. So I do thank the member for Fenner. I also commend the industry for becoming so heavily involved. Whilst that is partly self-interest, but for them we certainly wouldn't have this outcome here today. I'll just deal with the machinations of what the bill is actually doing and then talk about the real-life results of what will happen after this bill is passed.

The objectives of this bill are to promote competition between Australian repairers of motor vehicles and to establish that level playing field by mandating access to diagnostic repair and servicing information on fair and reasonable commercial terms. Secondly, it enables consumers to have those vehicles diagnosed, repaired, serviced, modified or dismantled safely—in case of need—efficiently by a repairer of their choice. It will also encourage the provision of accessible and affordable information to repairers from registered training organisations. Importantly, it will protect safety and security information about those vehicles and ensure the safety and security concerns of customers, information users and the general public. It will provide low-cost resolutions to disputes that would occur under the scheme and promotes competition. And, finally, to ensure the provision of accessible and affordable information, scheme information must be offered at a price that does not exceed a fair market price.

What has been happening over the years is effectively a monopoly by manufacturers. Currently, around one in 10 motor vehicle repairs taken to workshops are affected by a lack of access to service and repair information. Effectively, that pushes costs up and so excludes some people from the market who can't afford those costs. It also creates delays in having vehicles serviced. The repair and service of new cars is increasingly reliant on access to the electronic service and repair information and data produced by the manufacturers. Independent repairers who are not authorised or affiliated with car manufacturers are reliant on manufacturers sharing such information voluntarily. Those are the machinations of the changes in this bill.

What they mean in real terms is threefold, and the third one which I will speak to is probably unintended but most significant. But, firstly: it means that our repairers in regional areas, who haven't had the ability to access this information, will now be able to do so. That will mean that they can earn more money as they can get access to these vehicles. These are highly qualified and highly trained professionals who have been prevented from providing these services to the locals because of some overseas company. I know that I for one, in years gone by, thought, 'I can't take my car to my mate Joe who does a great job on my other car because the manufacturer says, "If you do that, you are going to void your warranty."' That's completely unfair. So that fixes that area.

But what it also does for the whole of the economy is provide that competition. We know if there's competition anywhere—it doesn't matter whether it's in repairing vehicles or providing surfboards—then the prices will be lower and the options will be greater. That is exactly what is happening here. No longer will you have to wait three, four or five weeks to get your vehicle serviced because you can't get in or pay $1,000 because there's no competition. You'll be able to get in next week and it might cost you $400 because of these simple yet very important changes.

I spoke about an unintended consequence. There are four pillars of road safety. Two of those pillars are safer vehicles and safer systems. This falls into both categories. I say 'safer vehicles' because I just spoke about the delay in the time one might have to wait to have one's vehicle serviced. Each year on our nation's roads almost 1,200 people die. In fact, last year, 1,127 people lost their lives on our nation's roads. The year before it was 1,188. Some of those accidents were due to mechanical faults of the vehicle. If there's no competition and you have to wait longer to have your car serviced, this may affect the safety of that vehicle. So, by making this small change, what the government has done—and it was bipartisan; I acknowledge that—is actually make our vehicles safer and contributed to the road safety message.

Think about the very, very sad story that led to the Sarah Group, where a young lady's car broke down on the side of the road and she and a tow-truck driver who stopped to help her were tragically killed. That was Sarah Frazer. Her father, Peter Frazer, started the Safer Australian Roads and Highways, named after his daughter, Sarah. Imagine if that had been a mechanical fault that had been prevented and she hadn't stopped there. It would be a different world for Mr Frazer. It would be a different world for Sarah. I talk about the unintended consequence of this very small yet important change which helps the consumer, helps the industry and creates competition, but what it is also doing is potentially changing somebody's life. I again commend the member for Fenner and thank the committee for their work together and commend the bill to the House.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak in support of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021 and to acknowledge, as the previous speaker did, the work that the member for Fenner has done on this issue over a period of time, considering the kinds of changes that were needed and how they might be framed and advocating for them in the media and in the public domain. I think it was good that the member for Cowper acknowledged that work, and it would be good if we could do that a bit more often in this place. There are a lot of things the parliament achieves through collaborative effort in the committee process and we probably don't draw attention to that enough, and that contributes to the view that people have that we all just shout at each other and don't apply ourselves always in the best spirit for the purpose that we are here to serve, which is to improve things for the women and men of Australia.

But this is an important change, because it essentially takes away what could be rightly described, up to a point, as a monopoly. It's probably better to describe it as an ineffective and obstructive kind of vertical integration. We essentially had a situation where car manufacturers and related dealers controlled access to information that was necessary to allow vehicles to be repaired. They denied the ability for independent repairers to undertake that work. The best way to understand that is by listening to a quote from a member of the industry. In speaking about this some time ago, he said:

The modern motor-vehicle is just basically a computer on wheels. Even simple things like changing a tyre, changing a component on that vehicle, checking the oil level and what have you is all now computerised. And the car companies are controlling the computer gateway into and out of the vehicle and how you communicate with that vehicle. And at the moment, they're shutting independent local mechanics out.

It started off with intermittent issues on older vehicles, but as each model year has come out, the situation is getting more and more dire. Our industry are having to use workarounds sometimes it might take them four, five hours to find the information for an issue they should have got in 10-15 minutes. That's a loss of productivity and a loss of profitability.

As the member for Cowper said, in some cases, it has probably resulted in people just not getting their cars repaired. That would have been particularly the case in rural and regional areas, where access to a large dealership just might not be possible—you've got your local business in country, rural and regional Australia and you want to get your car repaired but you can't, because the critical information in the computerised data and the various gateways, as just described, are denied to those businesses.

It absolutely makes sense that we now change from what was a failed experiment. It was a voluntary arrangement that this government wanted to try back in 2014. It didn't work, as those kinds of voluntary arrangements generally don't. There's no natural encouragement for big business, who see a competitive advantage for themselves in squeezing out competitors and making more money as a result. There's no natural imperative for them to want to change that. If you ask them nicely or leave it to some sort of voluntary arrangement, nothing will really change. It's time that we made the change mandatory, and that's what this bill achieves.

Who does it benefit? Of course, it benefits the 23,000 businesses that operate as independent motor vehicle maintenance outfits and repairers. It supports the 150,000-plus workers that are engaged in that sector. But, ultimately, it really benefits Australian consumers and households, because it means that car owners have more choice when it comes to getting their car repaired or maintained. It is a matter of choice. It's a matter of a fair, open and competitive market. In fact, I'd go a little bit further than that. I'd say that, when it comes to the kind of vertical integration that this bill takes away—the exclusivity of that vertical integration—there's an argument to be made that we actually want motor vehicles to be looked at by independent repairers; people who don't have a vested interest in the way that a particular make and model of car works. We know that motor vehicle products, like lots of products, are designed to be fit for purpose, but that's not always the case. We sometimes find that the airbag or the brakes or something else don't work. In the case of a motor vehicle, if that's the reality, the likely outcome is that someone is going to get very badly hurt. I know that the dealers who are associated with manufacturers would undertake their service and repair obligations with the utmost seriousness—I know that's the case. But it's actually healthy to have a service ecosystem that includes lots of independent repairers, who may be, on some occasions, just a little bit quicker to pick up on the kinds of inherent faults that need to be addressed on a larger basis. That's just a matter of having a system that works better, with some better checks and balances, than it might if the only people who are repairing and maintaining cars are the people who are also selling them and essentially depending, for their profits and their livelihood, on those vehicles being seen as problem free. I think that's another benefit this bill will deliver.

It bears saying, on this issue, that properly effective and fair markets don't naturally occur. A mistake we make too often, and it's a view that some people would like us to have, is to think that markets are a bit like the law of gravity or other natural laws—they exist without human influence and the best thing we can do is just let them get on with their inner workings. Markets are created by us. They are something that human beings have brought into existence, and they only work well, and for the ends that we need them to deliver, if we take an active interest in how they're operating. The reality is that, if you want fair, open and competitive markets, you need to have carefully, rigorously and properly overseen markets, because participants in a market don't necessarily, as individual entities, have an interest in those things.

If you're a market participant, you would actually rather get larger, have fewer competitors and dominate the area you're in, because there's a whole series of advantages that come from that. So that's what happens. You get people, in whatever market it is, who try to grow, outdo their competitors—and swallow them up if they can—and get bigger and bigger and bigger. When that happens, all the things that are supposed to help markets deliver efficient outcomes get taken away. As in so many areas of Australian life, you end up with two big players and they reach a relatively comfortable accommodation where they can maximise their own interests, which are not often the same as the interests of ordinary women and men in Australia.

This is a case in point. Of course car manufacturers, with the dealerships they operate and the services they provide, would rather keep that all in-house; they would rather make it part of their large, vertically integrated business. It allows them to control the product, and it allows them to control price. That's not in the interests of ordinary women and men in Australia, and that's why we need this market intervention that comes along and says: 'You don't get to achieve that market power and inflict that market inefficiency on all of us. We're not going to have that. You need to provide that information on a fair, open basis so we can have proper competition and the market can do what we need it to do. And you will be paid fairly for that,' because that's how the bill works. 'You have to provide the information, and you'll be paid fairly for it, but then independent operators get to service the vehicles of people right around Australia, particularly in rural and regional Australia, and they get to have the benefits of that.'

That market issue leads on to a broader issue termed the 'right to repair'. In a way, this piece of legislation is the first of what I hope will be more instances of government stepping in and seeking to provide an expanded right to repair. There are a range of reasons why that should be the case. There's a consumer interest in it; we can't have a situation where companies decide to design a product in such a way that the only choice a consumer has is to buy it, use it until it fails and then buy another one. That cannot be the way that the consumer world works. We cannot allow producers to design their products and then to operate in a way where the outcome is planned obsolescence, on the one hand, and then, on the other, the requirement to simply go and buy a new one because the battery's dead and you can't replace the battery. Surprise, surprise—the battery was only ever going to last 18 months. It probably could have been designed to last longer, but 18 months is what the focus group testing told them people would be prepared to tolerate before they'll have to go and buy a new one.

We can't allow that to happen. It's not fair to consumers, but it's also not sustainable—in every sense. It's not sustainable for our environment. We can't just have a linear economy of using raw materials to make products that are thrown into landfill, are burnt or end up in the ocean. We can't have that in terms of the environmental impact, but, in fact, we can't have it from the point of view of resource sustainability. There's just not a limitless amount of stuff in the world. We need to use the materials that are here, at a time when the population is very large and is continuing to grow and at a time when resource consumption per capita is continuing to grow. It's not some weird Left alarmist statement to say that if we keep going on the path we're on then we're going to hit a brick wall or we're going to run off a cliff, because there simply, logically, isn't going to be more of everything for the way that we're using it and wasting it.

The broader concept of the 'right to repair' fits within some of my responsibilities as the shadow assistant minister for the environment in terms of waste and recycling, because at the top of that hierarchy is that you reduce waste in the first place. You design goods so that you don't throw them away if you don't have to. You use them for as long as possible by repairing them as much as possible and by making sure that they're designed to be repaired. You ensure that manufacturers are obliged to consider that in their design process and that they make sure there are parts available. We need to make sure that there are processes whereby things within an object that are likely to wear out, which might represent only a tiny proportion of the object itself, can be replaced, rather than having the object designed in such a way that, when the one little thing comes to the end of its functional life, the whole object—the other 98 per cent of that material—just gets thrown away. We need to ensure that that sort of product stewardship gets stronger. Then we need to enable opportunities for other kinds of businesses and waste and resource management participants to be part of ensuring that we waste less, that we reuse more and that we recycle as much as we can those things that can't be repurposed, repaired or reused, so that, at the end of all of that, we are only left with the barest minimum of residual waste. Obviously there are going to be some things where, because of their hazardous nature or other aspects, we may need to consider something like waste to energy, but that should be for the tiniest, tiniest residue of the productive process.

This fits into that, and I welcome that it's happening, but it's disappointing that it's taking so long. The voluntary arrangement was entered into in 2014. The issues with it were acknowledged in 2017. The Productivity Commission began to have a look at it in 2017 and said that the voluntary arrangement was not working, that the dealers and manufacturers were not cooperating and that independent businesses, including business in my electorate of Fremantle, were not being given access to the information they needed to repair cars for ordinary Australian citizens. Then, in 2018, thanks to the work of the member for Fenner and others on this side of the House, there was a commitment to making the change that we now see. But that was in 2018. It is now 2021, and this won't be introduced until 1 July.

It would be nice for things like this—which is ultimately being done in a way that, I think, we on both sides of the House agree on—that the issue and the solution could be seen more clearly earlier and that we could make the kind of progress that this bill represents without the seven-year delay that has occurred between 2014 and now. I would like to see the principles at the heart of this bill around the right to repair considered more carefully in the future, and I would like to look at other ways in which we can ensure that we have a much more sustainable approach to resource use and a fairer approach to consumer rights.

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I rise to speak on this important bill, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021, I want to thank the member for Fenner for the contribution that he made not only in the debate before the House but also in ensuring that this issue has stayed on the public agenda since it was first raised by Labor Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury back in 2011. Had it not been for the excellent work of the member for Fenner, this, like so many other issues, would have gone into the pile on the Prime Minister's desk, with a tag in front of it, 'Broken promises and undelivered'. The tireless work of the member for Fenner in ensuring that the public saw the benefits, that the industry was on board and that the government were tirelessly embarrassed because of their inaction ensured that this bill was brought before the House today, so I'm very pleased to be speaking on his second reading amendment in this debate.

I also want to give a shout-out to a friend of mine from my electorate. He migrated to Australia as a young man. He and his wife started a small auto repair business. Originally, it was around the corner from my electorate office, on Marshall Street in Dapto. Felice Di Cesare, or Phil as we know him—if you are needing a talent to sing at your daughter's 21st or at an engagement party, Phil's your man. He's a champion bowler; he's a wonderful baritone; he's an outstanding human being. He's involved in the local Rotary club. He's involved in so many charities. He represented the district and the state in bowling. He is just an outstanding human being. If you need your car repaired, Phil is the bloke you want to get on the job. He has now handed the business over to his daughter and son-in-law, and they're doing a first-rate job at the business as well. They're a small operation, a small business, but too often businesses like this get squeezed out of the market. They have the talent, they have the ability, they have the expertise, but too often they get squeezed out of the market by the operations that are put in place—it's the equivalent of third line forcing   , actually—by manufacturers or large retailers and distributors. This bill goes to that issue in the area of automotive repair.

The government has broken some promises to the Australian people over the last eight years, but it's often the lesser-known promises it breaks that are the ones that whittle away at household budgets, and I will return to the issue of cost of living before I sit down. This is a scheme that should have come into place many years ago, but, because of the dithering of the government, the constant change in office holders—treasurers, assistant treasurers, prime ministers—it has never seemed to be a priority to bring it forward to the parliament so that car owners could have some relief and car repairers could get a fair crack at the business they so sorely need. It means that car owners have spent years paying more than they ought to have paid to get their new car fixed or serviced. It has also denied the independent mechanics a fair chance to compete for work, giving an unfair advantage to the big carmakers. Needless to say, those big carmakers are now all foreign owned because the government chased the last manufacturers out of the country, so it beggars belief that we are honouring and putting in place arrangements that actually give preference to the mob who left Australia but leave in place highly uncompetitive arrangements disadvantaging small businesses here in Australia.

We live in an information age. Modern cars are no longer the rubbery, rickety-steering wheel, the seat belt that never quite fit, the bench seat that never quite felt comfortable and the electronics that were never quite reliable. We live in a modern age where cars are effectively a computer on wheels. And not too many years from now, the modern car will be a dirty big battery, driven by a dirty big computer with a driver more or less directing an intelligent driving system. That makes it all the more important that we have a robust market for the repair of these vehicles. We must not relax for a moment the level of standards and expertise that is needed to repair these vehicles and ensure that they are safe. We also need to ensure that we have a robust market and access to the necessary data and information that are going to enable those repairers to do the right sort of job to keep our vehicles and our roads safe.

Under this government, the big carmakers have taken full advantage of their market position by keeping data to themselves, and not sharing it openly and transparently. Make no mistake, the abuse of market power is definitely on a par with what we've seen in some of the large multinational technology companies and it's consumers that are paying the price. New car owners were given no real choice about where to get their cars serviced or fixed, and anyone who has had a car serviced lately can tell you the results: higher prices. You thought you were going in for something pretty simple but you were paying through the nose.

The Liberal Party approach to this has been somewhat of a mess. It pays to go through some of the history of it. In 2011, as I mentioned, David Bradbury, who was then Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, requested that the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council report on the consumer harm that was being done by the lack of access to service and repair information, the data. It had been locked up by the big manufacturers in exclusive arrangements with their preferred retailers. The path was cleared to ensure that we could have the right sort of legislation put in place to remove these anticompetitive practices. However, in 2014, under the Liberal government, key industry associations managed to convince the government that a voluntary agreement was going to be enough. They agreed, with the government, on an access to service and repair information for motor vehicles agreement, that placed voluntary obligations on car manufacturers to share, with the independent repairers on commercially fair and reasonable terms, the same technical information that they provide to their authorised dealers.

We had a lot of doubts about this when it came into place. We thought there had been plenty of time for the manufacturers to put in place the right sorts of arrangements with the whole of the repair market. As it has turned out, our doubts were well placed. After two years of operation even blind Freddy could see that their solution was a failure. The ACCC, as well as the bigger independent operators like Kmart and Ultra Tune, condemned the voluntary code and forced the government to commit to a review of the code. This was all announcement and no follow through, as is so often the case with this government. The government's review never happened so the ACCC stepped in again. It was only when Labor, armed with the ACCC evidence, said that enough was enough that real action happened.

The mandatory data scheme that we're debating today and we'll finally legislate will bring the major car makers to heel. It's a win for households, a win for the independent mechanics and a win for common sense. It's particularly a win for households, because when you look at a household operating sheet—the budget that a household puts on the kitchen table and they have to ensure they make balance at the end of every month—after putting food on the table, paying the mortgage and the electricity it's the cost of running the car which is one of the greatest expenses. The insurance cost, the maintenance and repair costs, the parking cost—let's not forget the initial purchase cost or the leasing cost. It's one of the largest expenses of a household when they put their budget together and they're trying to make ends meet. So anything that we can do to bring down the cost of having that car on the road—it's absolutely essential if you live in regional Australia, as I do—has got to be a good thing.

This is budget week and you would have noticed—have a look at the budget papers—prices are going up. In fact, they're going up considerably faster than wages. It's why we say that the government has completely missed the point. In the budget they handed down on Tuesday night, we see it there in black and white, prices going up, wages going down. The government has not got a policy. The government has not got a policy for household budget relief. We're seeing wages going down, prices going up and the government trying to disown its own budget. If there is a weakness at the heart of this government, it's its failure to grasp the situation facing ordinary workers and ordinary households. Their plan for economic recovery is a plan based on wages going down and prices going up. There's not a strategy at hand to deal with that.

We welcome the fact that the government has finally got on board and adopted a Labor policy from 2011. It was originally brought to this House by David Bradbury. It was put back on the political agenda by the member for Fenner in his former role as the shadow minister responsible for consumer affairs and competition matters. Finally, we find a bill before the House. After several failed attempts, we have legislation before the House, which we welcome. I speak in favour of the second reading amendment moved by the member for Fenner. I thank him for his work and I thank my colleagues for their work in keeping pressure on the government to see this matter finally brought before the House. I commend the bill to the House.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support not only the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021 but also the member for Fenner's second reading amendment, which points out how this government has failed to act in a timely manner. Labor moved in 2018 to make these reforms, encouraging the government to act and implement this important initiative to ensure that Australians have the right to get their car serviced where they want and to boost competition in the car repair sector. It's pretty simple: if you buy a car, you should be able to access information to fix it and you should be able to choose your mechanic, and mechanics should be able to access the information they need to fix your car.

I commend the member for Fenner for his persistent lobbying on this issue. The government could have chosen to support small business in 2018, when the member for Fenner first raised this. The government could have chosen to support Australian car owners in 2018, when the member for Fenner first raised this. They didn't and here we are four years later. The member for Fenner has persisted, and it is a testament to his determination that we finally have this bill in the House today.

Labor knows that a better deal on car service and repair will put more money back into the pockets of car owners and also give 23,000 independent repairers a boost. It's good for households and it's good for business. That's why we've 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.

New cars are computers on wheels. Real-time access to digital files and codes, which vary from car to car, is needed to complete many aspects of a repair or service. Car manufacturers generally own or control this technical information and in many cases are the only sources. Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Ranger, you should be able to choose where you get your car serviced. The car manufacturers' protection racket on this information pushes up prices for car services and limits the ability of independent mechanics to grow their business and generate more jobs.

For many years now Labor have been calling for independent mechanics to get access to this critical information that car manufacturers make available only to authorised dealers and preferred repairer networks. We've pushed for this reform because it will not only deliver savings to drivers, who will have better choice and easier access to repairs, but also create a level playing field for independent mechanics, who will be able to stay in business as a result. Labor understands that it's your car and it should be your choice where you get it repaired. A level playing field on car service and repairs will deliver money to the household budget and give local mechanics a boost to their business. Small repairers should not be locked out of business because they simply don't have the information that they need to fix cars.

This is a Labor win. Labor have been pushing this issue for a very long time—first in 2011, when the Hon. David Bradbury, then Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, requested the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council report on consumer harm being caused by lack of access to service and repair information. In 2014, under the Liberals, key industry associations agreed on access to service repair information for motor vehicles—heads of agreement that placed voluntary obligations on car manufacturers to, in general, share with independent repairers, on commercially fair and reasonable terms, the same technical information they provide to their own dealers. The ACCC and independent mechanics, including Kmart Tyre and Auto and Ultra Tune, agree that this scheme was a failure, with very few car manufacturers—Holden being a notable exception—providing access to technical information. The government delayed a review into the voluntary agreement, breaking a promise to do so. The review was finally folded into the ACCC's new car-retailing industry market study, released in December 2017. Labor's 2018 commitment to create a mandatory data-sharing scheme and the advocacy of individual Labor representatives, in partnership with local small mechanics, forced the government to take action.

Labor supports this bill. It is a good thing, but it should have happened sooner and it wouldn't be happening at all without Labor's advocacy and without the advocacy of the member for Fenner, who has been a tireless advocate on this issue which is good for business and good for people who drive cars, which, as we know, is the majority of us.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor is driving a better deal to put more money back into the pockets of car owners and give more than 50 independent repairers in the electorate of Burt a boost with a plan to ensure vehicles can be serviced by any mechanic. New cars are computers on wheels. Real-time access to digital files and codes, which vary from car to car, is needed to complete many aspects of repair or service. Car manufacturers generally own and control this technical information and, in many cases, are the only sources. Whether you own a Toyota Corolla or a Ford Ranger, everyone should be able to choose where they get their car serviced. Currently, limited access to this vital information pushes up prices of car services and limits the ability of independent mechanics to grow their business and generate more jobs.

A Labor government will 'require car manufacturers to share technical information with independent mechanics on commercially fair and reasonable terms'. Those were the words from a local media release that I issued after visiting the fantastic Kelmscott Autofix mechanics in August 2018. Labor committed to levelling the playing field for independent mechanics back then, following independent recommendations from the ACCC in 2017. This tired, eight-year-old coalition government is only just catching up now. The independent car repair sector has been crying out for years for reform. We are proud to say that the legislation being put forward now, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021, is a step in the right direction—a step only being taken after years of campaigning by mechanics, car owners and Labor—for our local mechanics across the country.

The first I heard of the need for this sort of reform was when I was being assisted by RAC Roadside Assist. This was during my first election campaign as a candidate. The technician mechanic shared with me the limitation on roadside assistance services that are a result of the limitations on access to car manufacturer information. This reform now sticks up for those roadside assistance services, as well as our local mechanic small business, and will not only deliver savings to drivers, who will have better choice and easier access to repairs, but create a level playing field for those independent mechanics and help them to create jobs and apprenticeships too. There is a real advantage to doing a mechanic apprenticeship at your local mechanic. You learn how to work with new cars, old cars and all types of cars. You're not just doing regular servicing; you're doing diagnostics and problem solving. This is a great apprenticeship opportunity and puts independent mechanics in a position where they have a level playing field and are able to take on more apprentices, and it helps solve one of the shortages often overlooked in this country—the dire need for more well-trained mechanics.

Ensuring that independent mechanics have access to this added technology ensures that the education of these apprentices of tomorrow is exponentially better, because they will be able to do all the work that, at the moment, can only happen with a dealer mechanic. Not to mention that, if you live in a country town with only one mechanic or only one dealer and you have a car of a different brand, you might not be able to get it serviced in your home town. You may potentially have to drive hours to the next major town or to a capital city to get your car serviced, significantly disrupting the business of your likely multiple-generation family-owned local mechanic, let alone the time and effort involved in you getting your own car repaired. This will be a great change that will keep local small business local. This move follows similar reforms that have happened all over the world. It's nice to see now that Australia is finally catching up. Just as with vaccine rollouts, this Prime Minister is more 'SlowMo' than 'ScoMo'. It's your car, and where you get your car serviced should be your choice.

This legislation before us today will enable consumers to have their vehicles attended to by an Australian repairer of their choice who can provide convenient, efficient and safe service. This bill will promote competition between Australian motor vehicle repairers and establish a fair, level playing field for those independent operators in competition with larger dealerships currently locked into monopoly provision—people like the Ditchburn family, who run Autofix in Kelmscott, who have been servicing my family's car for literally generations. I have a lot of siblings, so they've probably made quite a lot of coin out of the Keogh family, I can tell you! Their customer service is second to none, and it's that sort of service that should be championed and supported across the country in our metropolitan areas, in our cities, in our towns and in our regions. It is small businesses like theirs that we can help through this legislation to level the playing field.

Under this legislation all service and repair information provided to car dealership networks and manufacturer preferred repairers will be made available for independent repairers and registered training organisations to purchase. This in turn will encourage the provision of accessible and affordable diagnostic repair and servicing information to Aussie repairers and to those RTOs, as well as for training purposes, which will be excellent for apprentices across the country. Franchise dealers have made huge investments in factory training and, indeed, in their property and in selling cars—they're qualified technicians—along with making sure they've got the latest tools, facilities and equipment, as is often mandated by those manufacturers. It has been good to see this government finally catch up to Labor's position of making sure there is a level playing field for those car dealers in dealing with car manufacturers.

James Voortman, the CEO of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association, the peak industry advocate exclusively representing these franchise dealers in Australia, said:

Independent repairers who choose to commit to similar levels of investment for their customers and are suitably qualified should be entitled to compete with dealers on fair and reasonable grounds and this legislation will give them the chance to do that.

This is not to mention that a bit more competition in the market would be excellent for consumers and provide great opportunity for small businesses across the nation. A genuinely competitive market for motor vehicle service and repair relies on repairers having access to the information they require to carry out the work they are pitching for to us, the car drivers of Australia.

As I said back in 2018, new cars are computers on wheels. They carry with them an awful lot of personal information about their owners. Because of that, we must also ensure that the personal information of drivers is secured. It need to be secure, and that needs to be assured. This legislated solution to the market imbalance created by restrictions on data to date helps level the playing field for small business. The government has been driving with the handbrake on to deliver this scheme. In 2014 it put in place a data-sharing obligation. That was an epic fail. This bill only exists because of the strong campaigning of Labor nationwide from 2018 and at the 2019 election. I want to commend the member for Fenner for the excellent campaign he has run on this particular issue across the country and with Labor members across the country.

This will benefit consumers through increased choice, but when it comes to data sharing there have been some significant concerns about security. The data generated by modern cars can be worth billions to those who wish to harvest it. Vehicle makers, their competitors, insurance firms, researchers and big tech are among those wanting to harvest data and access it. Newer cars are increasingly accumulating data about engine performance and temperature, brake performance, tyre pressure, fuel consumption, speed, acceleration, cornering, kilometres travelled, oil level, battery charge level and steering. Data can be generated about the performance of individual components, and that of course is before we get to any records made of your GPS. There is potentially also personal data, such as your driving alertness, speed, routes, destinations, fill-up points, the restaurants you visit and, with sensors making their way into seat belts, the number of passengers. Cars might also provide real-time data about the environment, such as where it is raining, based on the use of wipers, or through sensors on an axle that alert road authorities to rough road conditions. As vehicle computers and sensors become more sophisticated, it's likely that the main beneficiaries of this data will be others, such as car makers, car component manufacturers, insurers and firms offering in-car entertainment and food ordering systems. The list goes on and is likely to be beyond some of our wildest dreams.

One issue that has been discussed between the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association and Treasury is about how independent mechanics will be able to update the digital service records of cars they work on. I understand that some resolution to this electronic logbook issue has been reached. The Assistant Minister to the Treasurer has worked with stakeholders to find a satisfactory solution to this issue, and that will sit alongside the legislative framework in this bill. For the integrity of this scheme, it will be important that independent mechanics have sound processes in place to protect vehicle data. It is in the interest of both manufacturers and repairers, as well as car owners, to ensure that the scheme carefully guards data privacy. Failure to comply with data protection obligations will result in hefty fines for organisations, which is entirely appropriate. Labor has been calling for independent mechanics to get access to the same technical information that car manufacturers make available to their authorised detailers and preferred repairer network. We pushed for this reform because it won't just deliver savings for drivers but will also level the playing field for small businesses, independent mechanics who have been able to put some skin into the game.

It's your car so it should be your choice where you are able to get it repaired. I commend the legislation.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll start by acknowledging all of the speakers and all their hard work. Following the member for Burt, I know how passionate he has been about this issue, as have been many speakers, because it is a pretty important issue. They say success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. Listening to this debate tonight it seems that everyone wants to claim a piece of the action. It is good to see that everyone is joining forces and supporting important local businesses in all our electorates. I want to pay special credit to the member for Fenner, who has really been the hero of this story in advocating and fighting for this. It is true that you can change things from opposition, and I am really pleased to have played a small role in this piece of legislation.

As we know, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill gives independent mechanics the right to access service and repair data at a fair commercial price. The bill is intended to 'promote competition between Australian motor vehicle repairers and establish a fair playing field' for independent operators competing with the large dealerships, so it's really the little guys versus the big players in the market. I'm really pleased to say that this parliament will be recognising some of the smaller operators, to ensure that they equally have a share in this important service to community, and supply chain issues for other businesses in the community.

Schedule 1 to the bill amends the Competition and Consumer Act 'to establish a scheme that mandates all service and repair information provided to car dealership networks and manufacturer preferred repairers be made available to independent repairers and registered training organisations to purchase.' This will, as we know, enable consumers to have those vehicles attended to by an Australian repairer of their choice who can provide efficient and safe services; encourage the provision of accessible and affordable diagnostic repair and servicing information to Australian repairers and to registered training organisations for training purposes; protect safety and security information about those vehicles to ensure the safety and security of consumers, information users and the general public; and provide a low-cost alternative dispute resolution mechanism.

During COVID, small and family businesses shouldered much of the financial burden during the pandemic and, sadly, many are still trying to find their feet. I want to make sure that the around 15,000 businesses in my electorate of Oxley know that we as a parliament—and myself, who is privileged to be their representative—will do everything we can to support small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy. Coming from a family-owned business, with my parents owning businesses for 30 or 40 years, I know how important it is government does everything it can do to make it easier for businesses to make a dollar. But it was often said in my family or within my Dad's business that earning the dollar was the easy part; keeping it was the hard part—that the dollars can come through the door but that it was important to make sure that you're spending them wisely, that your overheads are down and that there's healthy competition. That was always the case in my family's business as butchers in Brisbane.

The bill enables 23,000 independent Australian repairers to give their customers a better deal on service and repairs. As many speakers have said, it really is a win-win, because it puts money back into the pockets of car owners and brings more customers through the doors of small and medium businesses—which is particularly important now during the COVID period, when they need it most. We've all heard stories about local residents wanting to shop local, buy local, and perhaps not travel too far from where they are, and wanting to remain in their suburbs or villages across the regions, and this policy enables that to continue. So, whilst the genesis of the reports and changes that we're dealing with tonight perhaps started before the pandemic, I think the pandemic showed, more than ever, that people do want to support local businesses. They do want to support the people who support them in their local communities.

In the Oxley electorate there are 18 independent mechanical businesses. What they're telling me right now is they do need a level playing field to get the boost they so desperately need. They want access to the same technical information that car manufacturers make available to their authorised dealers and preferred repair networks. This, as we know, is an industry-specific auto dealership code. I'm delighted that the member for Macquarie has joined us in the chamber tonight, because she is a huge supporter of small business and I know has been a massive champion for her car dealers in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury area. There are growing businesses right throughout that region.

I will take the chamber back to 2018, when I visited a local business in the Sumner precinct in my electorate. There is a large number of businesses and auto mechanics in the suburb of Sumner around Spine Street. It is well known that that is where you take your vehicle. There are smash repairs businesses and small businesses, and they do a great job and provide great services. I visited a business called Mr Spanner Automotive. This is a family business. Ian and his wife have run that business for many years. Back in 2018 I took the then Leader of the Opposition and then shadow Treasurer to sit down and meet with this business to hear what their difficulties were. It's a great family business in my electorate. We were able to meet with some of the mechanics: Ian, Grant, George and Luke, and some other people, and I'd like to say that this was part of that conversation that the federal opposition had. I was blown away after meeting with the delegation of mechanics in and around that area. The member for Moreton has got the large car dealers in his electorate—a huge, huge industry and development around that Rocklea precinct, which is the checkpoint before you arrive into the Oxley electorate. I know he has been a massive advocate for this policy. He has, perhaps, got the larger scale end of the matter and I have some of the smaller operators in my electorate. But with that visit to Mr Spanner Automotive I got it straight away. After meeting with those owners I understood straightaway exactly what they needed.

The only bit of negativity I want to put into this debate is that it did take a number of years—some four or five year—to make this happen. These businesses are a huge part of the economy. It's a massive contribution to the local economy, but also the broader car maintenance businesses and mechanics across Australia. So I'm really pleased to support this piece of legislation tonight.

I actually ran into one of those owners that I had the meeting with, with the organisation that was lobbying—I think Lesley Yates and her crew have done a fantastic job in advocating on behalf of their members. The AAAA organisation does amazing work in terms of representing their members. I met one of the mechanics who runs a business down in that Spine Street precinct at a Rotary Club of Jindalee meeting about two weeks ago and it reminded me that we had that meeting.

The wider sector and wider industry has welcomed this change in policy and this piece of legislation. James Voortman from the AADA, who I've had a lot to deal with over the years, has also welcomed this announcement tonight. We know that we made that commitment in 2018 to create a mandatory data sharing scheme. With the hard work of our shadow ministers, and all of the local, small mechanics and their representatives, I'm really pleased that the government has taken action.

We know that customers always go for value for money and best choice. Hopefully these changes tonight will ensure that. Congratulations to all of the local businesses, and many of them are small businesses, that have been fighting for this. It is a real win for the people who have been fighting—the little guy against the big companies—to make sure that they're getting a piece of the action, a slice of the pie so to speak, to make sure that their businesses continue to grow and thrive. This is a victory for their perseverance in fighting for their businesses. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more businesses grow, a lot of businesses succeed and employ more mechanics and apprentices, so that they can continue to provide the wonderful service that they've done for many years.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021. I have a long history through or with the motor repair business. My dad, my dear old dad, my 87-year-old dad, became a motor mechanic at the age 14 to his dad who was also a motor mechanic. My dad was a motor mechanic for 73 years. It is almost bewildering these days to think that anybody could be in a job for that long, let alone a job that requires a lot of physical exertion of energy. I remember dad crawling under cars and trucks, coming home filthy every night, with oil and petrol all over him and up his fingernails, and always stinking of oil.

From about the 1980s onwards, my dad would come home and he'd complain bitterly about being blocked out of the industry as cars became more technical. It's hard to believe the VL Commodore could be regarded as technical. I think the VL was released around the time when they first started introducing computers into cars. This was the way that car manufacturers were able to block out the small independent motor mechanics like my dear old dad. The large motor manufacturers basically withheld the intellectual property and certain tools from independent motor mechanics to stop them from being able to diagnose what particular problem a car might have. My dad, like many older motor mechanics, is absolutely amazing when it comes to anything mechanical. There's nothing that my dad can't fix, if it is mechanical. But, these days, someone rocks up with a fault in their car, the mechanic plugs a diagnostic computer into the car's computer and it spits out a fault or an error warning that tells the mechanic exactly what the problem is and what has to be done to fix it. This was a way of locking out small, independent, suburban motor mechanics. What we saw over a period of years was small businesses, small motor mechanic businesses, withering on the vine. It was really very sad to see, particularly the young apprentices who wanted to be motor mechanics having to be steered or pushed towards careers with the major motor manufacturers.

Of course, we on our side of this House are very passionate about small business. We believe that small business is the engine room of this country, and we will back small business every step of the way. But this reform is not just about assisting small businesses like my dad's. I remember, a little while ago—maybe two years ago—my wife ringing me when I was in Canberra. She said that the battery in her car was flat. I won't name the brand of the car. It's a European car. I said: 'Okay, just go and get another battery—no big drama. What's a battery on a car cost—$150, 180? It'll be done just like that.' The manufacturer wanted $800 to replace the car battery in my wife's car. Of course, I rang the manufacturer and said: 'Mate, come on. I didn't come down in the last shower. You can buy a car battery for $150.' 'Not this car battery, Mr Wallace. This is a special car battery. It's a very special battery, and this is what the cost is—$800.' This reform will drive competition. Going back to my wife's car: you couldn't just put any old battery in this car. Not only did you need a new battery; the computer needed to be reset—

An honourable member: Did you get rid of the car?

I got rid of the car—in order to make this thing properly functional. So, through absolutely gritted teeth—I can tell you—we paid the outrageous sum for this battery. I sold the car, and never again will I buy that brand of car. This is where consumers are being absolutely held over the barrel by large motor manufacturers. It's only right and proper that people can get their car serviced or repaired at their choice of qualified motor mechanic. This is good common sense.

I know that those opposite are very, very keen to try and take all the credit for this, but let me give the members opposite a bit of a history lesson.

An honourable member interjecting—

I'm not against it at all. As the member for Oxley said, 'Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan.'

In June 2016, the then Assistant Treasurer, who I believe is still the Assistant Treasurer, announced a review into information sharing for independent mechanics. That was wrapped up into the ACCC's market study. The ACCC's market study was released on 14 December 2017, after 18 months of investigation, 130 public submissions, site visits and a stakeholder forum. On 4 May 2018, the Assistant Minister to the Treasurer announced at the Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association conference that the government would design a mandatory scheme for the sharing of technical information with independent repairers. Two weeks after that, on 13 May, the member for Fenner, if I remember correctly, announced with the greatest of fanfare that the Labor Party would be supporting this policy—and now they're taking all the credit for it. I just wanted to put that on the record. I don't mean to be disrespectful. This is a good, commonsense policy. It's very pleasing to see that it has bipartisan support, but I think we need to remember the true and proper history of this matter.

I want to applaud the efforts of the Assistant Treasurer, who's here to sum up very shortly. This is a sensible reform. I thank the Assistant Treasurer and I thank all those members on this side of the House and the other who supported it, and I commend the bill to the House.

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do like history lessons, but I think the history on this issue probably goes back just a little bit further than a couple of years, and I'm going to take the member for Fisher through it. I am grateful that this is something that we are in furious agreement about. I think the real issue is why it took so long. So let me go back and give you some real history.

In 2011, David Bradbury, who was then the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, requested that the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council report on the consumer harm being caused by the lack of access to service and repair information. This was when cars were becoming more sophisticated. It's been a long time since you've seen blokes under a car in their driveway on a Saturday morning changing the oil. It's something I grew up seeing, but it doesn't happen anymore. Back in 2011, the then parliamentary secretary—someone I knew well—David Bradbury, recognised that there was an issue.

We then got to 2014 and, under the Liberals, key industry associations actually agreed to an agreement on access to service and repair information for motor vehicles. It was a heads of agreement. My maths isn't great, but I think 2014 was seven years ago. There was an agreement that placed voluntary obligations on car manufacturers to, in general, share with independent repairers. It was meant to be on commercially fair and reasonable terms that that information was shared, and it was to be the same technical information that they shared with dealers.

You would have thought that, in 2014, this issue would have been over and that car repairers and services in my electorate of Macquarie, in the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury, would not have found themselves on an uneven playing field. But, unfortunately, that scheme was a failure, and it was recognised as a failure, with very few car manufacturers providing access to that technical information—because it was only voluntary. The only one who did was Holden. They were, I'm told, a notable exception. That's when the problem was well and truly identified. There was an attempt to deal with it, but then there was a very long lag.

I give credit to the member for Fenner, who, from my very early days here, was talking about this issue and finding a solution to this issue. I'm very grateful that the government has listened to the advocacy from many members on this side. I can't speak for how many members on the other side have visited; I haven't heard them speak about it in parliament. The minister may be able to identify some who have. But today we've clearly demonstrated a long list of members on this side who feel very passionate about it. On this side, I think there's more than double or triple the number of people speaking in favour of this, because it is so important to us. I think it belies the idea that somehow small business is something that this side of politics doesn't understand. Many of us have run businesses, have worked in small businesses or are married to people who run small businesses. Personally, I had 25 years running my own business. I grew up in small business, in a newsagency. I grew up with a dad who worked seven days a week, and I know exactly what it's like when the playing field isn't level. That's what car repairers and service businesses have had. It's been an incredibly unlevel—there's got to be a better word than that—and terribly uneven playing field for them, and it is terrific to see this.

It's for people like Heath and Hayley, who have Windsor Ultra Tune. They look for creative solutions but sometimes just have to say, 'You're going to have to take that to the makers of the car to get that particular thing looked at.' It's for people like Andrew in Blaxland, at Active Automotives. They very kindly have spent time with me, explaining the issue to me. I don't profess to have a great understanding of car repair processes. I'm very happy to hand it over to somebody, but I absolutely want to be handing it over to someone local, someone I can trust and someone I run into at the shops. That's been the real history—and success, I think—of local car repairers. They are part of our community. They're small-business operators who we know and build a trust with. That trust can pass from generation to generation. My children absolutely followed in my footsteps and had their cars serviced at the local providers that I used.

I think that goes to the heart of why this shouldn't have been so hard fought for. It was recognised as an issue. I don't have an explanation for why it took so long, but I am grateful that finally, in 2021, we have this issue resolved. I hope we see the benefits of it. I think that is also the test: to see how this plays out with our local car servicers and to talk to them about it. Of course, that's what we do regularly on this side: engage with our local small businesses to find out how things are going. That's why I know that things are really tough for some of these people. For car repairers, things were pretty good during COVID, many tell me, but then they realised people weren't driving as much, so they're seeing complete shifts in their business models. They're the sorts of things we need to be very mindful of here as we think about support for industries when they're coping with a changing economy, when we think about how we support them to attract the new apprentices they need and how we support those apprentices to be able to go through a thorough training process.

On this side, we are absolutely delighted to see that there is a real breakthrough for a category of small business that provides such an essential service in our community. I suppose it is an example, if one were unkind, of those opposite recognising a policy and borrowing it from us very heavily. We've seen that a bit this week. We take it as flattery. For this one, I note, it appears the whole policy has been incorporated in this legislation, not just cherrypicked, and that's something I'd also commend the government on. I really like to be able to congratulate the government when it does something right. I know those occasions are few and far between. On this one, I'm very pleased to be able to welcome this legislation and I'll be very pleased to be supporting its passage through this House.

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's wonderful that we are all in furious agreement about the virtues of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme) Bill 2021 and the importance of what it will offer to many thousands of small and family businesses—independent repairers—throughout Australia.

I think we all understand politics and we all understand that oppositions need to try to inject themselves into good news stories wherever possible, and we all have a fairly high tolerance for that. But suggestions that these reforms, which the government initiated in 2017, are somehow borrowed from the Labor Party are wrong. I think it's important to point that out. Members earlier made it very clear that there was a government announcement in relation to these changes before the 2019 election—changes that were agreed to shortly thereafter by the opposition. We're obviously very happy that they accepted our policy, as we had announced it some two weeks before they did. But this sort of political gamesmanship, in trying to take credit for these things, strays into problematic territory only because it doesn't accept the hard work of our excellent public servants who have put this together. I can tell you, having led this work with a range of different industry bodies and with Treasury, that suggesting that we somehow have adopted this from the Labor Party sells short the hard work that they have put into putting together this scheme. This is very complicated work. It is an extraordinarily complicated bill and, when dealing with sensitive matters of intellectual property which, quite frankly, extend beyond our shores with foreign manufacturers, the Labor Party, in trying to take credit for what has been pretty painstaking work, may just be taking this a bit too far. I'm therefore very proud that we have agreement in this chamber on what I think will be a landmark Morrison government reform that, clearly, the opposition were unable to deliver when they were in government.

In summing this up, for the benefit of the House, I'll recap. The bill establishes a mandatory scheme that will promote competition in our automotive sector by requiring motor vehicle service and repair information to be made available—importantly, for purchase at fair market price. Our scheme will be the first of its kind in Australia and, indeed, in the broader Asia-Pacific region. It has been noted by many that a genuinely competitive market for motor vehicle service and repair activities relies more and more in this day and age on all repairers having access to the information that they require to safely and effectively repair their customers' vehicles. As motor vehicle technology becomes more and more advanced, the information required to safely repair those vehicles increases, yet, sadly, around one in 10 vehicles currently taken to repair workshops is affected by a lack of access to the information that is needed. When this is the case, it inevitably results in higher costs for consumers. This is self-evidently because there's little choice as to where to take a vehicle, particularly newer models, to be repaired safely and efficiently.

This new scheme will set out a framework for access to service and repair information, including who must provide the information, who's entitled to receive it and what access conditions will apply. This government is committed to ensuring that we have a competitive automotive sector and a level playing field for all participants: independent repairers, consumers, affiliated dealers and vehicle manufacturers. We will also bring Australia's automotive repair industry into closer alignment with existing arrangements in the United States and the European Union. As was said earlier about the specific work that has gone into this uniquely Australian scheme, the scheme adviser, as outlined in the bill, will play an important role in monitoring the scheme's implementation and will provide advice across industry in relation to its operation. I want to note that once the scheme is operational I will, as a matter of urgency, be requesting the scheme adviser to consult with industry and report to me on issues surrounding the accessibility of information contained specifically within electronic logbooks. This is because it's vital to the scheme's success that repairers get the information they need and that it is affordable, accessible and provided in an appropriate time frame.

This scheme is designed to ensure consumers and independent repairers get a fair go when it comes to the servicing of motor vehicles. I want to thank all of the independent repairers throughout Australia whom I've been able to visit since the last election. In formalising and finalising the bill that's before the House today, I want to thank them in particular. I thank all the industry bodies for coming together in good faith, in putting together this scheme. I also want to thank all of the officials in the Department of the Treasury who have painstakingly worked to put together what is a uniquely Australian solution to a problem that is going to not just deliver benefits to consumers but, as is an article of faith for the Morrison government, level the playing field for small businesses—mum and dad businesses. I therefore commend this bill to the House.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order. The original question was that this bill be now read a second time. To this the honourable member for Fenner has moved as an amendment that all words after 'that' be omitted with a view to substituting other words. The immediate question is that the words proposed to be omitted stand part of the question.

Question agreed to.

Original question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.