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SENATOR Ricky Muir, in a last-ditch effort to be relevant before tomorrow’s election, has unveiled plans for a mandatory data sharing system that would give independent repairers access to the same crucial repair and maintenance information as franchised dealers.

He said failure to achieve a mandatory data sharing code would see many independent workshops go out of business in the coming years because cars were becoming more complex and the manufacturers were refusing to make the data available in Australia, even though, he claims, they do in North America and Europe.

Supporting Senator Muir, Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) chief executive Stuart Charity said he believed the issue of gaining equitable access to car-makers’ data was nearing its end after a nine-year Choice of Repairer campaign.

“This next 12 months is going to be huge. It’s going to be do or die in this battle,” he told a roomful of independent repairers.

Both Senator Muir and Mr Charity urged independent repairers to mount an information campaign, writing to Members of Parliament and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) about the problems they face obtaining the information needed to repair their customers’ vehicles.

Senator Muir said the current voluntary arrangement calling on car-makers to make data available had been a failure. He claimed that only one of the 68 brands on sale in Australia had made all its data available.

He told the room of repairers that he took heart from the fact that the three major political groups – the ruling Coalition, the Labor Party and the Australian Greens – as well as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) and his own Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party (AMEP), had all committed to a review of the voluntary code after the election.

Stuart Charity and Ricky Muir

Stuart Charity and Ricky Muir

Senator Muir has proposed the adoption of a regulation that would be policed and enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), similar to other industry-specific codes of conduct that are enforced.

The regulation would be supported by the formation of a National Automotive Repair and Service Council and the creation of a portal through which all data would be available from car-makers.

The council and the portal would be funded by annual subscriptions from independent repair and service providers who use the service.

 

The council itself would comprise a representative from each of eight – perhaps more – national automotive industry representative bodies, including bodies like the Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), which have fought consistently against the adoption of universal data access.

Senator Muir told the gathering that his proposal for mandatory data sharing was not new and did not require anything that was not already available in North America and Europe.

“We are just ensuring that you guys can get the information you need,” he said.

“You should be able to, at a fair cost, pick up the phone and get the service codes that you need at the time you need it.Service_lower_2

“The government says it is in favour of small business, but if you can’t get the information you need you’re no longer a small business. You just don’t exist.”

Mr Charity said, if Senator Muir’s mandatory code was adopted, there would be no way around the requirement to provide information on a fair and reasonable basis.

“If this is adopted, anyone who sells vehicles into Australia will have to abide by this code. If you don’t, the ACCC has powers to come in and fine companies that breach the code.”

He said there was a simple reason that the car-makers had shunned the voluntary system now in place.

“When you have a $24 billion market and the power the car industry has, you can’t leave it to the goodwill of those companies because there is no goodwill.

“Of course they are going to support their own commercial interests and they are going to do everything they can within their power to make sure their commercial interests are supported.

 

“On this issue, you cannot have a voluntary situation. We have been telling the government that from day one. We’re now at the final stage where the government has finally woken up and the mandatory code is on the table.”

Stuart Charity

Stuart Charity

He noted that, under Australian consumer law, it is not illegal to withhold technical and diagnostic information from consumers.

In a pre-election policy check, the AAAA asked the three major parties, the NXT and the AMEP a series of questions on the issue of data sharing and choice of repairer.

Mr Charity said all agreed that the consumer should be able to choose who will repair their vehicle while three of them – the Greens, Labor and the Liberal/National Coalition – all support a review of the voluntary system.

The NXT wants a Senate inquiry into the mandatory code while the AMEP wants to go straight to a mandatory code policed by the ACCC.

The Coalition said a review of the voluntary code would include consideration of a national mandatory portal.

Mr Charity said the AAAA Choice of Repairer campaign and Senator Muir’s proposal for a mandatory data sharing scheme would need the support of the independent repairers and workshops if it was to succeed as the AAAA doesn’t have the budgets of the car companies.

“The government relations budgets of the top 10 brands of vehicle manufacturers in this industry, every single one of them would leave us absolutely dead as an industry association,” he said.Service_lower_4

“They swan around Canberra, around Parliament House, on a regular basis and their message to everyone is there’s nothing to see here, that the AAAA is grandstanding and that all the information is out there, that the repairers don’t want to pay for it and the training and what have you and that they want a free ride.

“You have to give them credit because the Canberra political establishment actually believed them until we set them straight. But one person didn’t, right from the get-go.

“Massive PR budgets and slick lobbyists didn’t cut it with Senator Muir. Despite their polish, he has maintained a healthy scepticism since day one.”

While the push for better access to data is gathering support in Canberra, Mr Charity said the industry needed to maintain the pressure.

“We’re going to need your support to continue the fight. We are going to need you to give us information about about what’s happening in the market.

“You’re our arms and legs and we need to put our case forward and present a compelling case to act on this issue. And not only for our industry, but for every single car owner in Australia.”

Mr Charity said independent repairers also needed to write to their local members and let them know about the barriers they face in trying to fix their customers’ cars.

Ricky Muir

Ricky Muir

He also suggested that the repairers and their customers should write to the ACCC and let the commission know what is happening in the market and that there was nothing radical or surprising in Senator Muir’s proposal.

“This is based on the US agreement. The US is probably the market most like our market than any of the other markets around the world. We are a much smaller version of it, but the structure of the market and the dynamics of the market are very similar,” he said.

“This is just mirroring across what’s been happening on the ground for the last three years in the US.

“And I have to say the car industry is operating fine. The dealers are profitable and the independents all co-exist in a competitive market where they can all get access to the information they need on fair and reasonable commercial terms.”

Mr Charity said there was no substance to the claims being made by the car-makers and their peak body, the FCAI.

“There is a notion being put around by our opponents that by doing this we will be sending dealers broke. That’s rubbish. We are not asking for anything more than is available in other markets.

“We hear arguments about there being 68 different brands and that they don’t have the scale to support a mandatory sharing of data.

“Well, we say that is their problem. We didn’t ask for there to be 68 brands on sale in Australia. And besides, there are not going to be 68 dealerships in every country town, so data access is still going to be a must.”

Mr Charity also welcomed the recent decision by the ACCC to conduct an examination of the new-car market. The ACCC only conducts two market studies a year and this will be the first time the new-car industry has been put under the microscope.

“The ACCC will be looking into the activities of the car industry, looking at things like whether car owners are fully aware of their consumer rights when they buy a car,” he said.

“That covers things like confusion over warranties and extended warranties and includes all the issues around lemon laws and the massive increase in vehicles with problematic faults that are not being satisfactorily addressed at a dealership level.

“It includes misrepresentations about fuel economy and emissions. It includes capped-price servicing and, as you know, many of those offers that came out around capped-price servicing were misleading and found to be misleading by the ACCC.

“And the fourth part of that market study is vehicle data sharing and what impact that has on vehicle owner’s rights.”

By Ian Porter and John Mellor

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