About MTA Queensland

The Motor Trades Association of Queensland (MTA Queensland) is the peak body representing the interests of employers in the retail, repair, and service sectors of Queensland’s automotive industry. MTA Queensland has been performing its vital representative role for the automotive industry since 1929. In Queensland there are some 16,000 automotive businesses employing more than 90,000 people, that generate more than $7.24 billion to the state economy annually. The automotive industry is estimated to contribute $37 billion to the Australian economy each year. The Association represents and promotes issues of relevance to all levels of government. In 2019 MTA Queensland was announced as an ABA100 winner in The Australian Business Awards and a finalist in the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, for Business Innovation.
Through advocacy and consultation, MTA Queensland works closely with governments both state and federal, and other decision-makers, to shape policy development and ensure positive outcomes for the industry.
To help achieve this, the MTA Queensland comprises 11 separate divisions, each representing a specific industry sector. The chairperson of each division represents the interest of their industry sector through their position as a member of the MTA Queensland Board.
MTA Queensland is also committed to helping automotive businesses to be at their best, and works to achieve that goal by providing businesses with the services, support, advice and advocacy they need to make their organisations successful.
These services include:
  • Workplace services including industrial relations and business advice.
  • Training of the next generation of automotive experts through its training arm, the MTA Institute.
  • Up-to-date industry information and advice.
  • Facilitation of networking events for industry.

Our History

MTA Queensland has been performing its vital representative role for the automotive industry since 1929. It was in that year that a group of like-minded businessmen – owners of garages and service stations –who were committed to the success and development of their industry, met at Exton House in Brisbane to form the Garage and Service Station Proprietors Association of Queensland (GASSA).
Starting with just a few dozen members, and focusing on the Service Station industry, the Association would blossom over the next few years as car ownership across Queensland expanded. By 1941, the Association had become the Queensland Automobile Chamber of Commerce (QACC), reflecting its wider industry remit.
In 1976, the QACC joined forces with the Motor Trades Association to become the Queensland Motor Industry Association (QMIA) – an amalgamation that created an employers’ organisation that truly represented the complete industry.
By this time, the Association had moved into training, establishing a division that would become the MTA Institute (MTAI) – an education provider offering world-class training to automotive apprentices, which is now one of the largest Registered Training Organisations (RTO) in Australia.
Renamed once more in 1986 to Motor Trades Association of Queensland (MTA Queensland), the Association’s long history is evidence of its success in representing the interests of its members and its ability to transform to meet the needs of the automotive industry of the future.
And today, as the industry moves forward to face both new challenges and new opportunities, MTA Queensland continues to offer the robust representation it always has, while offering members even more services and even more benefits at even better value.

History of the Logo

The MTAQ & MTAI logos were implemented in February 2007. The MTAiQ logo was implemented in 2017 when the Innovation Hub was launched. The significance and symbology of the logos include:
  • Depiction of the dynamism of the motor industry and the colour differential from light yellow to a deep red symbolising movement.
  • Five adjoining rings representing the fact that motoring technology is based on circles e.g. pistons, cylinders, wheels, gears and shafts.
  • Colours depicting the energy cycle of the motor industry and that the engineering is related to combustion, hence the use of yellow to red in a spectrum of colours.