THE CEO of the Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) James Voortman has outlined the organisation’s current priorities at its recent 2026 Convention and Expo in Sydney amid vast industry changes. 

And the number one priority is to broker healthier relationships between OEMs and their dealers via dealer councils and, failing that, through new federal government rules.

During a presentation titled Your AADA at Work, Mr Voortman pointed to such developments as the rise of Chinese brands in the Australian market, the impact of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES), the shift to customer EV purchases being to being driven by financial concerns rather than environmental concerns, and pressures placed on dealer profitability as having driven the AADA’s priorities. 

Mr Voortman listed the AADA’s key focuses, which included:

• Stronger dealer and OEM relationships
• Regulatory changes (including unfair contract term protections)
• Dealer satisfaction surveys
• Pushing for dealer councils
• NVES reforms
• ACL reforms
• ACCC mergers and acquisitions

“…success is going to depend on brands and dealers working together,” Mr Voortman said.

“That is our number one priority: stronger dealer-OEM relationships. And part of that is going to be down to regulatory change. We don’t apologise for some of the regulations we’re calling for. I strongly believe that unfair contract term protections will lead to better relationships between dealers and manufacturers. I strongly believe that unfair trading practices reform will lead to stronger relationships between dealers and OEMs.”

“I strongly believe that the standard protections we have in New South Wales, where dealers are protected (by state rules) against unjust conduct and are allowed to be represented by their association will lead to much better relationships between dealers and their manufacturers.”Mr Voortman stressed that the AADA is not solely focused on regulatory changes and will continue its work in other areas to benefit Australian dealers.

“We’ll continue to do things like conduct our dealer satisfaction surveys and work with OEMs behind closed doors to tell them what their dealers’ pain points are. We’ll continue to develop tools like the Australian Brand Comparison Report, which we’re hopefully going to be releasing by the end of this year. And we’ll continue to push for every brand – every significant brand in this market – to have a dealer council. And we’re hopeful that we can report some progress on that next year,” he said.

With regards to NVES, Mr Voortman warned of impending “huge costs” for the light commercial vehicle segment – which has seen a much slower electrification process compared to SUVs and passenger cars – if changes aren’t made to the emissions regulations. 

“There’s going to be a review of the the NVES in this year, and I think, (for) light commercial vehicles it’s as clear as day that the targets in that segment are not going to be met, and that there are going to be huge costs brought into the system if we don’t make changes there.”

In response to the influx of new brands entering the Australian market, Mr Voortman said Australian Consumer Law (ACL) has to be “fit for purpose.”

“… As we accept all of these new brands into our market, it’s essential that we have an Australian Consumer Law framework that is fit for purpose,” he said.

AADA CEO James Voortman

“There needs to be better alignment between the people manufacturing the product and responsibility when there are defects, and we need manufacturers to come to the table very quickly when a consumer launches an ACL claim, and in a timely fashion.” 

“We also need better definitions of some of the ambiguous terms in the ACL. I think this is something that’s increasingly being shared by manufacturers and dealers. Terms like rejection period, terms like major failure. These are ambiguous terms. Customers don’t benefit from them. Dealers don’t benefit from them, and neither do OEMs. And that needs to change.”

“And then finally, under ACL, indemnification needs to be fixed. If a dealer spends money on rectifying an ACL claim, if he spends money even on a warranty claim, he should be paid for that.”

As previously reported by GoAutoNews Premium, dealers have found themselves caught in the firing line of new mergers and acquisitions rules, with Mr Voortman reiterating that the AADA intends to respond “in the coming months” and believes there is “a better solution.”

“Every one of the transactions in our industry is going to be captured due to the new thresholds.” 

“We believe this is probably the most competitive industry in the Australian economy, and for every one of those acquisitions to be captured during a period in which rationalisation is essential to the survival of so many businesses, we think there’s a better solution, and we’ll be we’ll be having more to say on that in the coming months,” Mr Voortman said.