Don’t Bin It—Fix It: Facilitating the Right to Repair

Enough Is Enough!

Every year, Australians discard tonnes of electronics—smartphones, laptops, TVs, kitchen appliances—often because a single part breaks and can’t be repaired. Why? Because manufacturers make repairs difficult, expensive, and in some cases outright impossible.

This is why Australia urgently needs a legally enforceable Right to Repair: the right for consumers and independent technicians to access spare parts, tools, software, and manuals to fix what consumers already own.

It’s not just about convenience. This is a fight for consumer rights, local jobs, resource conservation and a livable planet. We’re drowning in e-waste, paying more for less, and watching small repair businesses disappear—while global corporations tighten their grip. Designing products to last, is a fundamental part of the circular economy

What’s Blocking Repairs?

Electronics today are designed for lowest upfront cost, not durability or repairability. Some regular barriers to repair include:

• Batteries glued in or soldered down.¹
• Proprietary screws and parts that only the manufacturer can access.²
• Software that bricks your device if you replace a part.³
• Restricted access to repair information over intellectual property claims.⁴

These aren’t technical limitations. These are strategic decisions—designed to funnel consumers into costly, closed repair channels or push them to buy new products altogether.

The 2021 Productivity Commission report on the Right to Repair found widespread barriers to repair and recommended legal reforms including: access to parts and tools, software support requirements, changes to IP laws that block third-party fixes, and labeling requirements rating repairability and durability of products. But almost none of those recommendations have been implemented.⁵

Australia Is Falling Behind

While we stall, other countries are moving forward. A number of states in the USA have already passed legislation towards this goal, including;

• New York, passed the Digital Fair Repair Act in 2022, requiring manufacturers to provide access to diagnostic tools and parts for digital electronic products (source).
• California, the world’s fifth-largest economy, followed with its own Right to Repair Act in 2023, covering electronics and appliances and requiring parts availability for up to 7 years (source).
• Minnesota, enacted a broad right-to-repair law in 2023 as part of its omnibus spending bill (source).
• Texas, in May 2025 passed a bill to require manufacturers of certain consumer electronics worth over $50 (USD) to make spare parts, manuals and repair tools available to consumers and independent shops, for all products sold from September 2026.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the EU’s Ecodesign Regulations mandate that consumer electronics like TVs, smartphones, and tablets must be repairable for 7–10 years, with parts, manuals, and tools available to consumers and independent repairers alike.

The United Kingdom introduced Right to Repair rules in 2021 for white goods (fridges, washing machines, dishwashers), legally requiring parts to be available for up to 10 years (source)—a move expected to cut 1.5 million tonnes of e-waste over five years.

Australia has made some progress, however it is currently limited to motor vehicles. The federal Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Information Sharing Scheme was launched in 2022, requiring vehicle manufacturers to provide independent repairers and parts suppliers with the same service and repair information that they give authorised dealerships. A Treasury review of that scheme recently found it was successfully encouraging competition among Australian repairers, increasing productivity, and supporting consumer choice. The scheme has been so successful, the federal government has committed to expand the right to repair regulations to cover agricultural machinery.

But access to repair and service information for motor vehicles and agricultural machinery is only one small piece of the e-waste problem. We need to ensure that wherever possible, products are designed with repair in mind, and that repair is facilitated and funded sufficiently to keep products in circulation and reduce our personal waste.

Why It Matters

Australians produce over 25 kg of e-waste per person per year—among the highest rates globally (UN Global E-Waste Monitor). Yet most of that waste is landfilled or shipped offshore, where it’s dismantled in unsafe conditions.

This waste crisis is worsened by the high cost and limited availability of repairs. If you’re a student, pensioner, or low-income family, you’re often forced to choose between an expensive fix or buying something new. That’s not a market failure—it’s policy failure.

Meanwhile, small local repairers are suffocated by anti-competitive barriers, unable to access basic tools or data needed to stay in business. Repair jobs are real jobs, and we’re letting them die out.

What Needs to Happen

E-waste Watch wants action from the Albanese Government, regulators, and state leaders to:

1. Enact a comprehensive Right to Repair law – covering consumer electronics, appliances, and farming machinery.
2. Amend copyright and design laws – to protect the right to repair, not monopolise it.
3. Mandate repairability labeling – products must be rated for ease of repair, parts availability, and software support duration.
4. Guarantee software and security updates – for at least 5–7 years post-purchase.
5. Support local repair economies – through grants, TAFE training, and protection for independent repairers.

Australia should also use public procurement power to favour repairable and durable products—and hold corporations accountable for undermining fair repair practices.

Don’t Let Corporations Lock You Out

This isn’t just a tech issue. It’s a battle over who controls the things you own. The more manufacturers lock down devices, the more they lock out the consumer benefits from competition, affordability, and environmental responsibility.

If you can’t fix it, you don’t really own it.

Repairing products you already own should be a right, not a privilege. Australians deserve better than corporate gatekeeping and government inertia.

The Bower Reuse and Repair Centres are currently running a campaign to establish a consumer right to repair, and have that right enshrined in legislation. You can read about their campaign here, and sign their petition here:

1. Lauren Greenlee (2022) Why Electronics Rely on Glue—and Why They Shouldn’t. www.ifixit.com/News/63249/why-electronics-rely-on-glue (accessed 6 August 2019) ↩︎
2. Whitson Gordon (2019) The Most Common Ways Manufacturers Prevent You From Repairing Your Devices. https://www.ifixit.com/News/15617/the-most-common-ways-manufacturers-prevent-you-from-repairing-your-devices (accessed 6 August 2019) ↩︎
3. Kyle Wiens (2016) Apple Shouldn’t Get to Brick Your iPhone Because You Fixed It Yourself. https://www.wired.com/2016/02/apple-shouldnt-get-to-brick-your-iphone-because-you-fixed-it-yourself – Please note this issue is not longer applicable to Apple, following the highly publicised criticism, they implemented an Independent Repair Providers program, making genuine replacement parts and other resources available to independent repairers. The implementation of this program has not been without criticism. See: Josh Taylor (2023) ‘We are losing money’: companies in Apple’s repair program say they can’t compete with tech giant: Guardian online: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/may/18/we-are-losing-money-companies-in-apples-repair-program-say-they-cant-compete-with-tech-giant (accessed 6 August 2025). ↩︎
4. Productivity Commission (2021) Right to Repair Inquiry Report. https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/repair/report/repair.pdf Page 17 outlines two main restrictions: firstly access to repair manuals and schematics including legal threats for transmission or distribution of such material to other repairers, and secondly access to diagnostic and software tools, with manufacturers using ‘digital locks’ that prevent third parties from accessing embedded repair data (such as diagnostic data, and consumer and product-use information that may assist troubleshooting and debugging. ↩︎
5. Productivity Commission (2021) Right to Repair Inquiry Report. https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/repair/report/repair.pdf ↩︎