The three-day forum wound up in Canberra on Thursday, August 21.
The summit produced 10 clear areas of consensus for reform, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers said would help achieve the “holy grail” for everyone assembled in the parliament house cabinet room — higher productivity and living standards.
NSW Farmers believes it is imperative that a right to repair and maintain agricultural machinery be enshrined in legislation, including expansion of the Australian Consumer Law to include farm machinery-related purchases greater than $100,000 under consumer protections.
“Machinery represents a significant, and ongoing, outlay for farm businesses, and it is important that a farmer can have machinery, equipment and hardware repaired and maintained at fair and competitive prices,” the submission to the roundtable said.
“Nearly all modern agricultural equipment and machinery has digital components and restricted access to machinery codes, diagnostics and schematics is currently a barrier to an open repairs and maintenance market.”
The submission argued that Australia does not offer a large number of agricultural machinery dealers per capita and that there has significant reduction of dealer networks across regional areas.
Legislating a right to repair for agricultural machinery would align Australia with international competitors such as Canada
This reform would provide more consistent consumer protections aligned to the automotive industry in Australia, with legislative changes in 2021 introducing the requirement for motor vehicle service and repair information to be made available for purchase by Australian repairers at a fair market price.
“The importance of this is underpinned by the Productivity Commission’s 2024 reporting that implementing a right to repair could lead to higher output for farmers, translating to a $97 million increase to GDP,” the submission by NSW Farmers said.
