ISSUE 92 JULY 2026
THE VOICE OF THE NEW ZEALAND AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
MTA lays out its election agenda for the automotive sector THE MOTOR TRADE ASSOCIATION HAS RELEASED A WIDE-RANGING PRE-ELECTION MANIFESTO CALLING ON THE NEXT GOVERNMENT TO TACKLE SKILLS SHORTAGES, FLEET SAFETY, REGULATORY IMBALANCE, AND RISING CRIME AT SERVICE STATIONS
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ith a general election looming, the Motor Trade Association has gone public with its most comprehensive policy platform in years. The Road to Prosperity sets out 16 specific calls across four priority areas, drawn from research commissioned by MTA and conducted by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. The document is directed at whichever party — or coalition — forms the next government, and MTA is explicit that it will work with anyone prepared to engage. The numbers underpinning the case are substantial. The sectors MTA represents employ 65,830 people across nearly 16,000 business
problem and a specific fix.
units and contribute $6.8 billion to GDP — 1.9% of the national total. MTA CEO Lee Marshall frames the manifesto not as a wish list but as an economic argument. “The automotive industry is ready,” he says. “We have the people, the data, the technology, and the will. What we need now is a government that shares our ambition and is prepared to partner with us.” The four priority areas — a skilled workforce, a safer fleet, a fair playing field, and a focus on crime — cover ground that will be familiar to anyone running a workshop, dealership, or service station. What the manifesto does is package those pressures into a structured set of proposals, each framed around a specific
WORKFORCE: RETHINKING HOW THE INDUSTRY RECRUITS AND TRAINS The skills shortage sits at the top of MTA’s agenda, and the association is proposing structural changes rather than incremental adjustments. On immigration, MTA wants an industryled quota model for Green List roles, with approved peak bodies such as MTA managing a fixed annual allocation of priority occupations and the ability to swap roles in and out as workforce needs shift — subject to Immigration New Zealand oversight. The argument is that the current system lags real-time shortages, creating bureaucratic delays that hurt both
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