Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share 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.

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