Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Arena Williams: Labour's Consumer Affairs Spokesperson on their pledge to introduce a right of repair law for car maintenance

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Arena Williams: Labour's Consumer Affairs Spokesperson on their pledge to introduce a right of repair law for car maintenance · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Labour is promising to make it cheaper and easier to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: repair your car if elected. They say drivers should have
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: a right to repair their vehicles and choose where they
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: get it done. They also want to look at petrol prices.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: They've got a couple of measures there. Arena Williams is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Labour's Consumer Affairs spokesperson and joins me now. Good morning
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: to you, Arena. Morning.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Andrew.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: So what do you mean by a right to repair,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: for those who don't know?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we want to make sure that independent mechanics can
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: get access to the information that they need to repair
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: all cars. At the moment in New Zealand, some manufacturers
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: withhold that information. So your small mechanics can't get it
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and they're having to send your car down the road
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: if they can fix it. So things like fully fixing
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the repair on your car, but not being able to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: turn off the dash light. And that's driving up costs
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: for ordinary people.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: To answer Russell's questions, don't new cars have a warranty?
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Here's the problem. If you don't actually give the independent
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: garages the technology and the knowledge to fix a car,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: then the dealers keep on actually doing the repairs at
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a higher cost after the warranty period has come out.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: So do you have any proof that the dealers have
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: been rorting us?
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: That's right. So in Australia, they brought this law in
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: in 2022, and a Treasury review found that independent mechanics
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: can do the same repairs for 25% cheaper. What's important
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: is that if manufacturers are offering a valuable warranty, then
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: consumers should be able to get that. But for the
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: vast majority of New Zealanders... with cars out of warranty,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: those repairs are more and more expensive. Something like a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Mitsubishi ASX 2014, I know because that's my car, has
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: a diesel particular filter, which is a manufacturer with special
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: rules about who can access those codes. My mechanic down
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the road in Manukau can fix it for me, but
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: he has to send the car to another mechanic to
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: get that code. And so I want to make sure
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: he's got access to it for a fair fee.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I have a Chinese EV, and of course
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: they fix it by using a computer program, but they
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: don't share the computer program with mechanics. So it's as
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: simple as that. In fact, with the EVs and the hybrids,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: we've got a growing problem arising, don't we?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, we do. It's important that mechanics are also
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: getting that information. Yes, they need to have qualifications to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: fix an EV because they're increasingly computers on wheels, but
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: we've got an ageing workforce of mechanics who are in
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: their 60s and 60s, and instead of being able to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: confidently invest in the tools that they need to fix
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: those cars and skill up the guys in the auto shop,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: they're considering selling their businesses because it's getting harder and
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: harder for New Zealand mechanics to run a business.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, you also want to crack down on fuel price gouging. Now,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that sounds like tilting at windmills. How are you going
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: to do that?
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: That's right. So, Labour will introduce a price gouging law
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: in our first 100 days, which will apply to essential goods.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: But for fuel, we're saying, look, this is a special case.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: We're going to bring in some clear rules around not
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: only the retail level, but the wholesale level, and adopt
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: some of the Australian measures in the Australian Oil Code,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: which which look at the contracts which small independent fuel
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: retailers enter into with the wholesalers. Because it's hard to
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: compete when you are reliant on your fuel supply from
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the big end of town, who you've also got to
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: shop a few hundred metres down the road from your
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: own small retail fuel supply.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: All right, Irina, I thank you so much for your
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: time today. Labour's Commerce and Consumers Affairs spokesperson. For more
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow the podcast
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.