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5 November 2021

Sign the Right to Repair petition

Send a message to the government demanding that we have a Right to Repair.

Our friends at Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand have set up a petition that makes it easy to have your voice heard.

Why should you care?

It’s frustrating when appliances and devices fail too soon and can’t be repaired. It happens too often, don’t you think?

It wasn’t always like this – over decades, manufacturers have systematically designed repairability out of products. It’s in their interests to make it easier and cheaper for us to replace and upgrade. It’s easy profit for manufacturers and retailers.

Needlessly throwing stuff away isn’t sustainable. We need to look after what we have, maintain it well and repair it when we can. However, it’s not always easy. Maintenance and repair instructions aren’t easy to find, parts often aren’t available or cost too much, and many fixes need specialist tools or expertise.

We all need to take action

Manufacturers won’t change their behaviour through goodwill alone, so we need to force it on them. We need to convince our government to take action!

As nations meet at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, now is the perfect time to act. And our government is currently consulting on a replacement for the Waste Minimisation Act. That’s a prime opportunity to turn a Right to Repair into law.

We want the government to:

  • Pass laws that require products to last longer and be easier to repair.

  • Take action to make repair services accessible and affordable for everyone.

  • Ensure consumers have access to information on product repairability and durability.

  • Require manufacturers to offer spare parts and repair services.

This isn’t unreasonable. It would be a big step towards the day when we stop throwing valuable resources away as e-waste.

Designing products that last longer and are easier to repair isn’t that difficult – it can be as simple as a manufacturer not gluing a battery into place, but instead making it easy to pop out and replace.

Add your voice to the sound of the crowd.

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Member comments

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Barbara H.
08 Nov 2021
A No-Brainer!

And we are still having this debate? Finite resource should be requiring repair facility as a matter of course. Big business needs to get their act together!

David C.
08 Nov 2021
Some unintended consequences of the petition's approach?

The way the petition is worded is very prescriptive and does not seem to leave space for real innovation in solving some of the repairability and durability issues.

An example: a washing machine that remains owned by the manufacturer, for which users pay a use fee per wash, is going to be designed to be repairable pretty well indefinitely - like a commercial machine - where a one-off sale has no incentive to be that durable or repairable. You also don't need to stump up a large chunk of cash at the start.

Robert A W.
06 Nov 2021
Local manufacture

I have commented on this to Consumer in the past before. We drag oil out of the ground in China to manufacture products that become obsolete in NZ after 12 months and end up in our land fill.
Scope, Shacklock, Atlas etc used to provide jobs for New Zealanders and manufacture products which could be repaired. In my 50 years of manufacture I have seen much of my industry disappear.
Robert White

Richard P.
06 Nov 2021
The Good Old Days

Oh, for the good old days, when the Kiwi dad ( or Mum ) was forced to try and repair the item, for, replacing without some effort to repair was just not an affordable option. From this environment came the No 8 Wire mentality, stuck as we are down the bottom of the world, that even to this day New Zealanders are known as innovators. It is not just the saving of money, but the learning acquired in the process, and the feeling of achievement.
Alas, the keyboard and screen for most young Kiwis now rule the day.

shirley morrison.
06 Nov 2021
LETS GO BACK TO REPAIRING ITEMS

THE GOVT SAYS SO MUCH ABOUT CLEANING UP THE PLANET, BUT DOES NOTHING ABOUT THE HUGE AMOUNT OF WASTE WHICH FILLS AND CONTAMINATES OUR LANDFILLS. KETTLES, TOASTERS AND MANY OTHER ITEMS CANNOT BE FIXED AND LAST ONLY BETWEEN ONE AND THREE YEARS. BIGGER ITEMS SUCH A WASHING MACHINES, DRYERS, ALSO DO NOT LAST. ITS LAUGHABLE THAT NOTHING IS DONE IN THIS AREA, AND YET THEY GO ON ABOUT PLASTICS.

Molly M.
06 Nov 2021
watch straps not replaceable

I have bought 2 watches at Warehouse and one via internet, each had plastic straps which last 2 or 3 years and then break. The Warehouse ones have no fittings that can take a seperate strap. Designed obsolescence!

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