Repair is Productivity: AAAA Hails Australian Repair Summit 2025 for Elevating Repair to a National Productivity Issue
The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association (AAAA) has welcomed the outcomes of the Australian Repair Summit 2025, praising the event for elevating repair from a consumer rights debate to a national productivity reform priority.
AAAA CEO Stuart Charity and Director of Government Relations and Advocacy Lesley Yates both addressed the Summit, highlighting the proven productivity gains achieved through the Motor Vehicle Information Sharing (MVIS) Scheme and the potential to extend those benefits to other sectors, including agriculture.
Stuart Charity emphasised that MVIS has demonstrated the benefits of reform and should serve as the model for future initiatives.
“MVIS has shown how smart, sector-specific reform can lift productivity and competition,” Charity said. “Applying those same principles—secure access to data, tools and training at fair market value—will help agriculture and other sectors realise similar benefits. The Summit has built strong momentum for that next step.”
Lesley Yates said the Summit had succeeded in connecting repair access to Australia’s broader productivity challenge.
“The Summit stayed laser-focused on outcomes,” Yates said. “Right to Repair is a practical productivity lever. When information and tools are available on fair terms, workshops and farms get back to work faster, costs fall and communities benefit.”
In his keynote, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Dr Andrew Leigh MP, emphasised that Right to Repair has become a cornerstone productivity reform rather than a niche consumer issue. Prior to Australia’s first R2R law, independent workshops were routinely denied access to diagnostic tools and data, limiting competition and choice. Since the MVIS Scheme commenced in July 2022, 65% of independent repairers have reported productivity improvements, and vehicle turn aways are down 40%. Treasury analysis also shows sector turnover up by approximately 6.7 per cent—equating to $1.8 billion in annual productivity growth.
Dr Leigh noted that R2R reform is now embedded in mainstream productivity policy across the European Union, the United States and Canada. He also pointed to the Productivity Commission’s finding of a potential $97 million annual GDP uplift from introducing agricultural Right to Repair reforms, reinforcing that “ownership should mean control”—Australians should be able to maintain, mend and modify their products safely, fairly and affordably.
The AAAA acknowledges Professor Leanne Wiseman for her leadership in curating a solutions-focused national conversation on repair across sectors, Sean Cole (GrainGrowers Association) for clearly setting out the economy‑wide losses when agricultural machinery repair is locked down, and thanks Dr Leigh for his continued engagement in championing repair as a driver of competition and productivity.
As the champion of Australia’s world-first Right to Repair law for the automotive sector, the AAAA remains committed to advancing practical, fair access to repair information and tools across all industries — strengthening productivity, competition and consumer choice.