Happy New Year! My team and I are refreshed after the festive season break and ready for any challenges that 2018 may bring. My focus, and that of my staff, will continue to be the delivery of all MTA Queensland services professionally, efficiently and courteously to members across Queensland.
The general outlook for the Queensland economy, according to advocates, is for favourable economic growth supported by sound business conditions. Consumer sentiment is ‘cautiously optimistic’. Offsetting this view is that energy costs will be a drag, and two-thirds of the state, or 120 million hectares, covering 35 council areas, are officially drought declared, impacting all businesses in that area.
2017 ended with a rush of activity. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its final report following its extensive market study on new car retailing. We made several submissions to this study. The ACCC recommended key reforms:
- A new mandatory scheme be introduced setting out the rules for car manufacturers to share technical information to repair and service new cars with independent repairers. Any mandatory scheme must be available on commercially ‘fair and reasonable terms’, and have safeguards to enable environmental, safety and security related technical information to be shared with the independent sector.
- Car manufacturers should transform their approach to the handling of consumer guarantee claims or risk action for non-compliance with the Australian Consumer Law. In addition, the ACCC recommended manufacturers:
– update their complaints handling systems to ensure consideration of consumer guarantee rights are embedded in all relevant systems, policies and procedures.
– Review their dealer agreements, policies and procedures to ensure their commercial arrangements with dealers do not contain unfair contract terms.
- The Federal Government introduce more realistic laboratory tests for fuel consumption and emissions, and an on-road ’real driving emissions’ test to give new car buyers more accurate information.
As is our practice, we forwarded to the Commonwealth Treasury’s Budget Division MTA Queensland’s priorities for consideration in determining the content of the 2018-19 budget. It is on the website.
Before going on leave, and following the State election, we forwarded congratulatory letters to newly commissioned Premier and Cabinet ministers with portfolios relevant to the motor trades. All elected State Parliamentarians were congratulated, advising each that the MTA Queensland had members with businesses in each of their electorates. I encourage members to go into their Member of Parliament’s electorate office and say ‘hello’ to staff.
Road Safety
As a general rule, I take a close interest in road safety policies and any associated comments. As a consequence, I’ve been following the debate on the effectiveness of unmarked and marked speed cameras. Statistically, during the 2016-17 financial year in Queensland, 106,741 notices were issued by unmarked mobile speed cameras and 163,176 notices issued by marked mobile speed cameras. Different views on the effectiveness of both unmarked mobile and marked speed cameras as a road safety measure have emerged.
On the one hand, unmarked and marked mobile speed cameras have been slated as ‘government revenue raising’ and ‘do nothing to affect the road toll’. On the other, research from the Monash University Accident Research Centre indicated that a mix of both covert and overt mobile speed cameras would produce the best road safety outcomes. This was due to the strong effect that covert cameras have on fatality crashes (as their unknown nature suppresses vehicle speeds across the road network combined with the substantial general effect overt cameras have on casualty crashes).
From my perspective, I would like to see some non-punitive measures implemented that favour safe driving included in the suite of road safety policies to deter crashes and accidents from speeding. This could include discounts on yearly registration, compulsory third party insurance and other related imposts for safe driving. The cost of the discounts could be offset by savings from the need for police, ambulance and hospital attendance at crashes and accident sites.
I intend to raise the concept with the Department of Transport and Main Roads officers at our next scheduled meeting. It makes sense to have the discussion. For the 12-month period, 1 January to 31 December 2017 there were 248 fatalities within Queensland, which is three fatalities (or 1.2 per cent) less than the previous 12-month period (251).
ABS Sales of New Motor Vehicles data
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has discontinued the publication of sales of new motor vehicles data – – December
2017 was the final issue. Commencing from January 2018, sales of new motor vehicles data (in original terms) is available from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries website www.fcai.com.au/sales.
The last publication indicated that, on a trend basis, there was minimal difference on the sales of new motor vehicle difference between the months of November (19,410) and December (19,419). December 2016’s new motor vehicle sales of 18,818 were surpassed in December 2017 by 601 (+3.2 per cent). Nationally, sports utility vehicles was the strongest segment increasing (trend) by +0.5 per cent to record 39,643 new sales.
Tax news
The Australian Taxation Office has advised the write-off threshold of $20,000 has been extended to 30 June 2018. This means the business portion can be immediately deducted in your tax return. The $20,000 threshold applied from
12 May 2015 and will reduce to $1,000
from 1 July 2018. To be eligible the business must have a turnover less than
$10 million and the asset must be first
used or installed ready for use in the income year it is claimed. In our pre-budget submission for the Federal 2018-19 budget, we strongly advocated a further extension of this measure.
BP – proposed acquisition of Woolworths’ retail service station sites
Prior to Christmas, the ACCC announced its intention to oppose the acquisition by BP Austria Pty Ltd of Woolworths Limited’s 531 service station sites and the 12 in development. BP supplies fuel to some 1,400 BP-branded service stations across the nation, setting fuel price at some 350 of them. The ACCC considered that BP’s acquisition of Woolworth’s service station likely would substantially lessen competition in the retail supply of fuel.
The ACCC research found that BP prices were significantly higher on average than Woolworth’s prices in the major capital cities. BP generally increased prices faster than Woolworths during price increase phases, and was slower to discount during the price discounting phase of cycles.
MTA Queensland, in June 2017, made a submission to the ACCC opposing the proposed acquisition. We highlighted the unprecedented market power of the major supermarkets to negotiate terminal gate prices enabling them to dominate both fuel retail markets and the entire fuel automotive value chain. The acquisition of market share by the supermarket giants had created a circumstance unparalleled in Australia’s fuel market history.
Industry innovation
MTA Queensland is responsible, as the peak industry body of Queensland, to ensure that members are introduced to new and innovative automotive concepts and products that may impact on their business.
MTA Queensland have been prepping and educating members about incoming disruptors through the 2017 Carmageddon symposiums and more recently with the establishment of Australia’s first automotive innovation hub, MTAiQ.
Members’ attention is drawn to the start-up company Tyrestock which has taken up residence in our innovation hub. It is the subject of a news story on the MTAiQ website. Tyrestock is an online ‘one-stop shop’ for tyre fitters and consumers. For tyre fitters, the tool enables them to buy tyres from different suppliers and have their orders delivered in two hours. The second element enables consumers to select and order tyres through Tyrestock and book an appointment with their closest tyre fitter to where the order will be delivered. At present the service is limited to the Brisbane area. There is a scheduled launch event for Tyrestock on the 20th March and details have been sent in our weekly bulletin and are available on page 58-59 of this edition of Motor Trader.
Finally
Check the fuel price boards from 31 January 2018. This is when petrol stations will display the actual retail fuel price on the price board. Any display of conditionally discounted prices on fuels price boards is banned – that is prices that are only available to motorists who have a discount voucher. This is a regulatory measure to protect motorists from confusion at petrol bowsers.
Until March, take care and stay safe.