If you’re sick of having to throw out things you’d rather just fix up and keep using, so are many other Kiwis. A groundswell of support for repair over replace has been picking up steam in recent years and looks to be gaining some real traction.
In April this year the Green Party’s Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill was drawn from the Member’s Bill ballot. This amendment to the Consumer Guarantees Act (CGA) would close a loophole in the law, which currently allows manufacturers to “opt-out” from providing spare parts. They do this by burying the phrase “we don’t provide spare parts” in an owner’s manual, says Abby Damen, communication and campaigns adviser at Consumer NZ.
“Unfortunately, this has enabled a system where manufacturers have gradually eroded a consumers’ right to repair the things they own. For example – when your laptop or microwave has a fault, and there’s no avenue to have it repaired, or the cost to get it repaired is close to or more than buying a new one – the most practical option is to chuck it.”
The cost of our disposable culture
Damen says there are obvious environmental and health implications to this. When we look overseas at the example set in the European Union, where manufacturers must disclose information about repairability, New Zealand risks becoming a dumping ground for low-quality products.
“This underlines one of the many reasons we need decisive legislative action that supports consumers and makes being part of a circular economy the norm,” Damen says.
The amendment to the CGA would also prohibit manufacturers from making repairs too expensive and dragging the chain on repairs. Instead, it would make digital information free, all other charges reasonable, and require that manufacturers comply with a request for repair information within no more than 20 days.
Repair Network Aotearoa Trust and Repair Café Aotearoa NZ, which recently ran their inaugural Repair Festival, a week of events dedicated to celebrating the “art and science of repair”, describe the bill as “landmark legislation” that will pave the way for a more sustainable and consumer-friendly future.
Festival organiser and founder of the Repair Network Aotearoa Trust, Brigitte Sistig, highlights the frustration many people experience when trying to get their belongings fixed. The Repair Festival was aimed at raising awareness about the Right to Repair and to advocate for free access to manuals, tools, and spare parts.
The Right to Repair campaign
Consumer NZ’s Damen says its own Right to Repair campaign, which petitions for product repairability labels on products, has had a “tepid” response from the government to date.
“However, since the Member’s Bill was drawn from the ballot earlier this year, we have been laser-focused on drumming up support for the bill and the repairability movement as a whole and resultingly our petition recently surpassed an incredible 21,000 signatures. We decided to hand it over to the Hon Rachel Brooking last month and noted the clear public support for better information for consumers at the point of sale (repairability labels) and how the amendment bill (closing the loophole in the law) are two sides to the same coin.
“While repairability labels give consumers information and choice, the Right to Repair Amendment would make it easier for consumers to repair their stuff when it breaks, spark the renaissance of an independent repairer industry, and enable products to live longer in a thriving second-hand market. We need both,” Damen says.
