Right to Repair reforms committed to by government

Tasmanian farmers have welcomed a Federal Government commitment to extend Right to Repair reforms to agricultural machinery, giving them quicker, cheaper options when breakdowns occur.

Following a meeting of state and territory treasurers last Friday, the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) secured the commitment from federal treasurer Jim Chalmers, who confirmed that agricultural machinery will be included in national Right to Repair reforms designed to modernise Australia’s economy and lift productivity.

Modelling by the Productivity Commission shows this reform could lift agricultural production to $97 million and greater competition in the repair sector will lead to a $311 million increase to GDP.

NFF president Hamish McIntyre said the announcement was a major breakthrough for farmers, delivering much needed competition and productivity uplift.

“Farmers will finally have more freedom to choose who services and repairs their machinery. That means less downtime, lower costs, and more control over their own businesses,” Mr McIntyre said.

“When a machine breaks down in the middle of harvest, waiting on an authorised dealer isn’t just inconvenient, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars. This reform will help farmers stay productive and competitive, which is exactly what farmers and the economy needs.”

Vegetable grower Harvest Moon has 32 tractors, two sprayers and five harvesters working across farms in the north-west and its in-house mechanic is locked into using dealers to diagnose issues with both software and hardware.

“While that’s understandable and we wouldn’t want to be doing highly technical work ourselves, sometimes, especially when it’s just a fault code that needs clearing or something minor mechanically, we could do it in-house if we had access to the diagnostic software,” Harvest Moon chief agriculture officer Jono Craven said.

“Our mechanic carries basic spare parts for frequent small repairs and would also like to be able to diagnose minor repairs using the relevant software, but we can’t at the moment so having the ability to do that going forward would be welcome.

“The other issue is when we’re busy, everyone is busy, so being able to access dealer mechanics is difficult – there’s only so many to go around.”

Tasmania’s peak farming body TasFarmers was also pleased with the result for its members.

CEO Nathan Calman said that TasFarmers had been working with the NFF for a long period of time to help develop the Right to Repair concept to benefit primary producers.

“While dealerships do a good job to maintain relations with those who buy their equipment it’s important that after the sale is done the purchaser has the choice about who maintains that equipment,” he said.

“There needs to be that competition in the market to keep prices down – if private, trained mechanics can do the work with a shorter lead time and at a lower cost that’s of enormous benefit.”