The Australian Government has sought feedback on proposals to expand Australia’s first right to repair law to agricultural machinery and to make improvements to the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme in response to the 2025 Review of the scheme. The Review found that the scheme for motor vehicles had been broadly successful, supporting growth of independent workshops, greater consumer choice and a 6.7 per cent (or $2.4 billion) expansion in the repair sector’s annual turnover since its introduction.
GrainGrowers submission recommends that legislation:
- Expands the scope of the Right to Repair scheme to include all agricultural machinery manufactured from 1990 onwards, including implements, autonomous and precision agriculture equipment, retrofitted digital systems and Automated Driving System (ADS) machinery, with no purchase price thresholds.
- Ensures independent repairers and suitably qualified persons have practical access to repair information, with only limited restrictions necessary for safety, security and appropriate use, while also supporting Registered Training Organisations and improving consumer understanding of the scheme.
- Permits legitimate repairs and interoperability modifications, restricting only those modifications that compromise safety, emissions compliance or cybersecurity.
- Improves the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing Scheme by providing timely, affordable and transparent access to information, recognising remote diagnostics, requiring electronic repair histories to be accessible and updateable, mandating pricing in Australian dollars, preventing unfair pricing practices, and ensuring reasonable information supply timeframes.
- Strengthens governance and enforcement through effective ACCC oversight, transparent pricing, robust consumer protections, and safeguards against anti-competitive practices, while ensuring the reforms do not inadvertently increase repair and maintenance costs through market distortion or other unintended consequences.