The Motor Trade Association took its election-year manifesto, The Road to Prosperity, to Parliament on 1 July. Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford hosted the launch and delivered the keynote address, with MPs from across the House also addressing attendees — a level of cross-party turnout MTA will read as an early sign of the broad support it says it built the manifesto to attract. MTA, founded in 1917, represents more than 4,000 automotive businesses employing over 65,000 people and contributing $6.8 billion, 1.9% of GDP, to the economy.
MTA chief executive Lee Marshall used the platform to frame the association’s approach: “We knew that we needed calls on the big issues that are capable of standing the test of time — calls that are capable of broad support, or at the very least, acceptance, from multiple political viewpoints.” The manifesto’s 20 calls, he said, “touch on areas from commerce, to crime, transport, immigration, education and more.”
A quick refresher on what’s in it
The manifesto is built around four priority areas. On workforce, MTA wants an industry-led Green List immigration quota and a National Trades Training Fund to replace Apprenticeship Boost, arguing the real cost of an apprentice to a business — $80,000 to $100,000 a year once supervision and lost productivity are counted — is a gap the current scheme barely narrows. On fleet, the headline ask is a $2,000 voucher for scrapping a vehicle 20 years or older in favour of one under 10, alongside a push to delay the second phase of WoF interval extensions until data from the first phase is assessed; the average light passenger vehicle is now 15.2 years old, against a 12.5-year EU average. Two further fleet proposals round out that section: a regulated battery stewardship scheme modelled on Tyrewise, and doubling the Investment Boost depreciation rate for EVs. On a fair playing field, MTA wants government to engage with the cross-industry working group it has convened on Right to Repair, to begin monitoring “debanking” — banks withdrawing services from automotive businesses over decarbonisation strategies — and to expand the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal to cover repair disputes, not just vehicle sales. On crime, MTA points to 28,095 fuel theft incidents recorded by police in 2025 alone, and wants a structured industry-police Fuel Retail Crime Group established, alongside full tax deductibility for crime-prevention spending.
The fleet and safety message
Marshall returned to the manifesto’s fleet safety proposals in blunt terms at the launch: “We are the blood in the arteries of the country — without a safe fleet of vehicles that performs as it’s supposed to, not much would get anywhere. We are a key enabler of the economy, and people’s lifestyles.” It’s the same argument behind the manifesto’s scrappage and WoF proposals, restated here for an audience of politicians rather than readers.
An open invitation, not a demand
Marshall was careful to frame the manifesto as a starting point rather than a finished position: “We’re not pretending we own the truth on these subjects — but we are sure our ideas are sound and we are here, ready and willing to work with whatever government forms in November to ensure that New Zealand Inc has the thriving automotive industry it deserves.” With an election approaching and MPs from multiple parties in the room, that invitation was clearly aimed as much at the next government as at this one.
Whether the cross-party attendance translates into cross-party commitments won’t be clear until after November’s election. For now, MTA has done what an industry body can do at this stage of an electoral cycle: put its numbers in front of the people who might soon be deciding whether to act on them.
