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The National Farmers' Federation has renewed calls for the federal government to reform laws to allow farmers the right to repair their own machinery.
Key points:
- US farmers are now able to repair John Deere tractors themselves, or use a dealer of their choice
- In Australia, the National Farmers Federation has written to the federal government urging "right to repair" reform
- The farm machinery lobby says legislative change would be "too inflexible", arguing for a code of practice
It comes after machinery manufacturer John Deere reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the American Farm Bureau Federation which granted expanded consumer rights to US farmers this week.
The MoU enables farmers in the US to purchase software diagnostic tools that allow them to take their equipment to a dealer of their choice to fix the problem or repair the machinery themselves.
No such arrangement currently exists in Australia, which means software malfunctions can leave machinery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting idle in paddocks during peak periods until an authorised repairer is available.
National Farmers' Federation president Fiona Simson hoped the latest developments in the US would fast track "right to repair" legislative reform in Australia.
"We really believe that it puts farmers at a complete disadvantage, particularly at peak times like harvest when things can go wrong with machinery," she said.
"They can't even access a technician to work out what's wrong with it, let alone fix it themselves because of the onerous agreements that the manufacturers have put in place."
Monopoly situation
The Australian Productivity Commission held an inquiry into "right to repair" in October 2021, which highlighted "significant and unnecessary barriers to repair for some products".
The Commission's final report made a raft of recommendations including amending Australian Consumer Law to allow customers to have products repaired at a competitive price using a repairer of their choice.
However, Ms Simson said little had been achieved more than 12 months after the final report was handed down.
Unlike in the MoU reached in the US, she wanted to see legislative reform to ensure any changes encompassed all machinery manufacturers across all primary industries.
"We really are in favour of government-led reform, this is a competition issue, and this is seriously impacting farmers in regional and rural communities every single day," she said.
"It's creating a monopoly situation in some of these communities and it's anti-competitive.
"If we do it like the US, manufacturer by manufacturer, with voluntary agreements and codes ... it really doesn't achieve the same outcome in as quick time as if we had government change."
The NFF formally wrote to the federal government on Wednesday seeking support for the reforms, but Ms Simson said the lobby group would continue to work with machinery manufacturers in the meantime.
"We have been talking to them [machinery manufacturers] for a long time now, we know they are active in our rural and regional communities and their dealerships play an important role," she said.
"But we also need to recognise that sometimes it's just not possible for that to occur and farmers need the right to be able to fix their machinery when it breaks down and access that important software."
'Too inflexible'
The Farm Machinery and Industry Association of WA (FMIAWA), however, argued an MoU or code of practice was preferable to increased government regulation.
FMIAWA executive officer John Henchy said legislative change would be too inflexible.
"When you get government involved, flexibility is not there," he said.
"Quite often it's determined by people who really don't understand the way business works.
"Generally speaking, the relationship between dealers and customers is quite close and the last thing we need is something to destroy that."
Mr Henchy said farmers seeking right to repair their own machinery were in the minority.
"The number of people who want to do that is very small in our opinion, but if that's what that they want, the manufacturers are looking at ways to help them do that," he said.