I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, on whose lands we meet today, and thank Professor Leanne Wiseman and Griffith Law School for hosting the fifth Australian Repair Summit. Professor Wiseman, your leadership on this issue has been invaluable, and the government thanks you for your thoughtful policy engagement.
Locked out of the workshop
Before Australia's first right to repair law came into effect, too many independent mechanics were locked out of the workshop.
A decade ago, drivers who took their cars to an independent mechanic often discovered that the repairer couldn't access the technical information needed to diagnose or fix the fault. Sometimes the manufacturer's diagnostic software was encrypted. In other cases, the data simply wasn't shared.
This lack of access had several consequences. It limited consumer choice, forcing car owners to rely on dealerships. It reduced competition, giving authorised dealers a significant competitive advantage. And it drove up prices for households and small businesses.
The Productivity Commission's 2021 Right to Repair Inquiry found that restrictions like these were raising costs, lengthening repair times and creating barriers to entry for independent repairers (PC 2021).
It wasn't just about convenience; it was about productivity. Skilled mechanics spent hours chasing information that should have been readily available. Customers paid more. Vehicles sat idle longer. For a $27.5 billion industry employing over 137,000 Australians, inefficiency of that scale affects the whole economy.
Right to repair is not just about giving people the satisfaction of choosing who'll fix their things. It's about creating a level playing field for small businesses, strengthening competition and ensuring that technology serves the public interest rather than enclosing it.
Opening the workshop door
That's why, in July 2022, the Australian Government commenced the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme, the nation's first legislated right to repair framework.
The scheme requires car manufacturers to share diagnostic and repair information with independent mechanics on fair and reasonable commercial terms.
For consumers, it means real choice about where to get their car serviced.
For independent repairers, it means the tools and information to compete fairly.
For the economy, it means stronger productivity through better competition.
The scheme's early results have been encouraging. A review underway by Treasury has gathered extensive feedback from across the sector. The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association reports that 65 per cent of independent repairers say their productivity has improved since the scheme began, and that the number of vehicles being turned away by workshops has fallen by around 40 per cent (Treasury 2025).
Repairers are spending less time searching for data and more time doing what they do best: fixing vehicles. Diagnostics are easier. Customers are happier. Mechanics are no longer forced to repeatedly send vehicles back to the dealership.
These changes matter. They mean local garages can compete on fair terms, customers can shop around, and Australians can keep more of their money in their communities rather than losing it to monopolistic repair chains.
The precise economic benefits are still being quantified, but the direction is clear. Treasury analysis of business microdata suggests that turnover in the automotive repair sector rose by 6.7 per cent (or around $1.8 billion per year) following the introduction of the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing scheme. By increasing competition and empowering skilled repairers, the scheme has lifted efficiency across a vital sector of the economy.
It has also strengthened the collaborative spirit that underpins effective reform. The law was co‑designed with industry, whose ongoing engagement ensures the scheme remains practical and future‑focused.
The message is simple: open markets make stronger economies. When information flows freely, productivity follows.
A global push to put tools back in people's hands
Australia's right to repair progress is part of a global movement to put tools, literal and digital, back in the hands of independent repairers.
Across the world, governments are recognising that easier, fairer access to repair information boosts competition, reduces waste and lifts living standards.
In the United States, Colorado has legislated a right to repair for electronic wheelchairs and agricultural equipment, giving owners and independent technicians access to manuals and diagnostic software. In Canada, copyright laws have been amended so that repairers can legally bypass digital locks for legitimate fixes. Across the European Union, right to repair measures are being integrated into a wider 'sustainable products' strategy, extending product lifespans and reducing waste. France and Belgium now require repairability indexes, scoring products on how easy they are to repair before purchase.
These are not just consumer protection reforms. They are productivity reforms.
The US Public Interest Research Group estimates that if households repaired rather than replaced everyday items like phones, laptops and fridges, they could save around US$330 a year, adding up to US$40 billion nationally (PIRG 2021).
In the United Kingdom and the EU, repairability is being treated as industrial policy, supporting skilled jobs, growing local repair industries and reducing dependence on imported goods and materials.
Right to repair is not an anti‑technology movement. It is a pro‑innovation movement. It asks that technology empower people, not exclude them. As software becomes integral to everything from tractors to toasters, the challenge is ensuring that digital locks don't turn consumers into captives.
Around the world, governments are rediscovering a truth that once seemed self‑evident: ownership should mean control. When you buy a product, you should have the right to maintain, mend or modify it safely, fairly and affordably.
When the tractor won't start
One sector where this debate is particularly acute is agriculture.
Modern Australian farms are high‑tech enterprises. Harvesters, seeders and tractors are now computerised machines, precision‑guided, satellite‑linked and sometimes worth more than a house. But while the machinery has become more sophisticated, access to repair information has gone backwards.
Farmers who once fixed their own equipment with a spanner and a bit of ingenuity are finding that they can no longer carry out even basic maintenance without manufacturer authorisation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's 2021 market study found that the farm machinery sector is concentrated at both the manufacturer and dealership levels, giving a small number of firms significant market power (ACCC 2021). Warranties often restrict servicing to authorised dealers. Diagnostic software is locked behind proprietary systems. Independent mechanics are denied access to the manuals, codes and tools needed to repair equipment.
The impact is felt most sharply when things break down at the worst possible time, during harvest.
As one news outlet reported earlier this year, Martin Honner, who farms near Junee in the NSW Riverina, remembers when a broken tractor could be fixed with 'a tap of the hammer and a bit of tinkering.' Now his million‑dollar machinery depends on software subscriptions and digital authorisations. 'With new machinery,' he says, 'there is pressure on us not to do our own maintenance, even an oil change, and that's not brain surgery. I feel we've been dumbed‑down' (McKeesick 2025).
When a breakdown occurs, farmers can lose days waiting for an authorised technician to arrive, often from a dealership hundreds of kilometres away. 'A good local mechanic might charge $50 to $120 an hour,' Honner says, 'but when the dealership sends a mechanic, it's in excess of $200 an hour' (McKeesick 2025).
Those delays and costs ripple through the economy. The Productivity Commission estimates that right to repair in agriculture alone could add $97 million a year to GDP, largely by avoiding downtime (PC 2021).
In another news story, Martin Murray, a spray contractor from Inverell, described how a $50 clevis on his spray rig could only be purchased as part of a $1,600 ram assembly because the manufacturer refused to sell the component separately (Bailey 2025). What should have been a five‑minute fix became a week‑long delay and thousands of dollars in lost productivity.
Mr Murray also found that some replacement parts, like rubber bushes, were drilled just 2 millimetres differently from standard truck parts, making them incompatible with anything but the manufacturer's own design. As he put it, 'They all do it. You've taken a $50 part and turned it into a $1,600 part, and it's wasteful.'
This kind of designed‑in exclusivity doesn't just frustrate farmers. It erodes trust, inflates costs and stifles the very spirit of problem‑solving that drives innovation on the land.
At this year's NSW Farmers Association conference, delegates passed a motion calling for a legislated right to repair for agricultural machinery. The association's Vice President, Rebecca Reardon, who farms wheat, barley, sorghum and sheep near Moree, said: 'Right now, farm machinery can only be fixed by an authorised repairer, for which there is often a huge wait. Not being able to use generic parts costs a fortune. Farmers should be able to access diagnostic software and choose a qualified local repairer if they wish, so they can get machinery fixed without being penalised' (Bailey 2025).
These concerns are not about nostalgia. They are about fairness, efficiency and resilience. A machine that cannot be repaired locally is a machine that weakens local economies.
The principle is clear: if it's broke, the owner should be able to fix it, or to choose someone local who can.
Repairing our way to a stronger economy
Right to repair is, at its heart, an economic reform. It's about making markets work better by removing unnecessary barriers to competition.
When manufacturers hold exclusive control over repair information, it creates what economists call a vertical restraint, a restriction that prevents others from entering the market. The result is higher prices, slower service and lower output. When information flows freely, competition flourishes. Independent businesses thrive. Consumers save. Skills stay local.
The economic logic is the same whether we are talking about a car in Canberra or a tractor in Tamworth. More competition means more productivity. More repair options mean less waste. More skilled work means stronger regional economies.
Repair also aligns with our environmental and resilience goals. It reduces waste, keeps valuable equipment in use and lessens our reliance on global supply chains. The pandemic exposed the fragility of 'just‑in‑time' systems. Right to repair supports a 'just‑in‑case' economy, one that can adapt and endure when disruptions hit.
It also strengthens communities. Every independent repairer is a small business that employs apprentices, sponsors the local footy club and keeps wealth circulating locally. When they prosper, the whole community benefits.
Right to repair sits squarely within the government's broader competition and productivity agenda. At Treasurer Jim Chalmers' Economic Reform Roundtable in August 2025, business, unions and community leaders agreed that a more competitive economy is a more productive economy. The renewed National Competition Policy Agreement, signed with states and territories last year, commits all jurisdictions to tackling structural barriers to competition, including those that restrict repair markets.
Right to repair is a clear example of how modest regulatory changes can deliver broad national dividends. It improves efficiency, empowers consumers and builds capability in local industries.
Our approach is grounded in evidence and collaboration. We will complete the review of the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme, ensuring that its benefits are fully captured and understood. We will continue to work with farmers, manufacturers and repairers to explore how those principles might apply in other sectors, starting with agriculture. And we will maintain alignment with global best practice, learning from jurisdictions that have successfully combined consumer rights with industry innovation.
Australia doesn't need to reinvent the wheel, but we do need to make sure everyone has the tools to fix it.
Right to repair is more than a consumer issue. It's a productivity reform, a fairness reform and a sustainability reform all at once. When markets are open, competition thrives. When information flows, productivity rises. And when people are trusted to use their skills, innovation follows.
From mechanics in Melbourne to farmers in Moree, Australians understand the value of being able to fix things. It's part of who we are: practical, inventive and fair‑minded.
As we look ahead, the question isn't whether right to repair matters. It's how far and how fast we can extend its benefits across the economy. Because every hour saved in a workshop, every harvest rescued from delay and every product given a second life adds up to a stronger, more productive nation.
Note: Thank you to officials from the Australian Treasury for valuable assistance in preparing these remarks.
References
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) (2021) Agricultural Machinery Market Study, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Bailey, E. (2025) 'Broken Down and Locked Out: Machinery Costs Fuel Right to Repair Debate', New England Times, 15 September.
McKeesick, M. (2025) 'We've Been Dumbed‑Down: Australian Farmers Want the Right to Repair Their Own Tractors Again', The Guardian, 26 January.
Productivity Commission (PC) (2021) Right to Repair Inquiry: Final Report, Australian Government.
Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) (2021) Repair Saves Families Big, US Public Interest Research Group.
Treasury (2025) Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme Review, Australian Government.