MANY government decisions that affect the future of Australian automotive dealers are based on half-truths and lies and unless the car retailers counter this trend, the effect will be to the detriment of the industry, according to automotive publisher John Mellor.

Acting as the interlocutor on a panel discussion with advocates for the car industry at this week’s Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) national dealer convention in Melbourne, Mr Mellor reflected on the fact that politicians had no idea about the workings of the vehicle retail and wholesale industry, yet were willing to introduce legislation such as allowing the importation of near-new cars from overseas when the facts showed the reasons given for doing so were false.

“There are too many decisions made by politicians based on half-truths and lies,” he said.

“For example, the entire reasoning behind the government’s decision to allow parallel or private imports is that Australians are being charged too much for their cars.

“And New Zealand, which has parallel or private imports, is held up as the paragon of low new-car prices.

“Yet the notion that Australians pay more for our new cars than Kiwis is just not true.”

Mr Mellor said that comparing prices with cars in other countries with Australia, taking into account factors including wages and the “Big Mac” pricing technique devised by The Economist magazine, consistently found that Australian prices were cheaper.

“The only time Australian cars were more expensive than in New Zealand was when they were subject to the Australian government’s luxury car tax,” he said.

“So the entire premise for the government’s decision to proceed with parallel or private imports is completely false.

“The problem is dealers are losing the fight for the truth.”

Mr Mellor told the audience that dealing with governments is changing and that vehicle dealers can no longer count on the comfort they used to have that governments will always do the right thing by businesses that contribute to the community.

“I would like to suggest that the time has come where dealers need to be taking a proactive role in securing the future of their businesses,” he said.

“Supporting AADA is the key to that because the status quo no longer works.

“The big danger for dealers – and the industry in general – is that the politicians and bureaucrats are becoming immune to the representations of special interest groups.

“There is a new expression – rent seeker – that is used very frequently these days.

“It is used extensively in the media to disparage interest groups representing businesses as a way of demeaning the effectiveness of their message.

“It is a dismissive term. The inference is that whatever these groups say can be ignored because they are deemed to be biased and only interested in feathering their own nests.

“But the problem with that is that the politicians and bureaucrats who take that attitude then ignore the very group that knows the most about the issue under examination.

“The knowledge resource is therefore discounted or sidelined or ignored and decisions proceed in a vacuum.

“There is also an even more disturbing trend. That is governments are starting to act – with an apparent indifference of the community – in a way that is beyond reasonable.”

Mr Mellor said the Baird government in NSW has decided to close an entire industry – greyhound racing – on animal welfare grounds.

“Make no mistake. That industry has a lot to be ashamed of but closing down a $400 million industry instead of addressing the real issues – animal welfare – is beyond reasonable,” he said.

“Disrupting the lives and livelihoods of the industry’s participants and dipping into the public purse to then pay compensation to those affected is beyond reasonable.

“So if this can happen to greyhound racing, what can happen to the car industry that is beyond reasonable?”

Mr Mellor said that the Victorian government paid nearly a billion dollars in compensations to contractors to cancel the building of a freeway “that is still desperately needed in Melbourne because it was in an ideological battle with the opposition party”.

“To squander enough money to build 10 modern hospitals in regional centres around Victoria – and not get anything for it – is beyond reasonable,” he said.

“It does not matter what your politics. These are the acts of governments that go beyond what we have come to expect from our rulers in this country over our lifetimes.

“What I am saying is that politicians and bureaucrats seem to have no fear of being held accountable for what they do anymore.

“If governments can be so strident in these other matters, then how sympathetic will they be when they come to take decisions that that will affect your futures?

“So the time seems to be very opportune for dealers to take more responsibility for their futures.

“The organisations that are represented by the people on this panel can do a lot for you in putting your case in Canberra. But it is important to support them.”

• How many people do these dealerships employ?

• The combined revenue generated in that electorate.

• What is the combined payroll you generate in that MPs electorate. How much PAYE do you generate?

• How much GST, payroll tax, land tax, stamp duty, rates and other government fees do you contribute?

• The number of families for which you put food on the table. How many people in those families are dependent on the payrolls dealers generate.

• Dealers might find they are the biggest employers in regional centres or at least in the top five.

• What is the aggregate annual bill of dealerships in the electorate for apprenticeships and staff training.

• An aggregate figure for combined investment dealers have made in dealership facilities in their electorate. How much do they pay in rent?

• The value of the vehicles they fund that are held available for the public to buy when the need arises. Cost of holding spares.

• The aggregate of how much dealers pay to suppliers to their businesses in the area.

• How much media do dealers buy in that electorate?

By Neil Dowling