September 5, 2019
New car dealers in the Maranoa electorate contribute more than $289 million each year to the economy and employ 1316 staff, including apprentices.
Maranoa is also the top Queensland Federal electorate – and the sixth in Australia – in terms of the total contribution the new car industry makes to the economy.
The figures come from the Australian Automotive Dealer Association’s (AADA) DealerNomics website, which was recently updated to reflect last year’s Federal electorate boundary changes.
Australia-wide, AADA says new car dealers turn over almost $60 billion in sales each year, collect billions in government duties and charges and employ more than 58,000 people.
They also contribute in excess of $15 million a year to community groups; $5.32 billion in employee wages; and train almost 4700 apprentices.
AADA has listed the Federal electorates where new car dealers make the largest economic contribution.
The top 10 are all large, regional electorates.
The South Australian seat of Barker tops the list with new car dealers in that electorate employing almost 1600 people with a total annual economic contribution of $333 million.
Barker’s neighbouring seat of Grey is in second place, followed by the Victorian seat of Mallee, the Western Australian seat of Durack and Parkes in NSW.
Maranoa – which includes Kingaroy – comes in sixth place, followed by O’Connor (WA), Riverina (NSW), Gippsland (VIC) and Nichols (VIC).
“New car dealerships are present in just about every Federal electorate, but there are more franchises in the electorates which are large by area, demonstrating the commitment of dealers to service rural and regional communities,” AADA CEO James Voortman said.
“Dealers are crucial local businesses in country towns.
“They are often family businesses which employ locals and sponsor local footy teams or community groups.
“Governments are in the process of considering a number of regulatory issues which will have a significant impact on the future of car retailing in Australia.
“It is important for decision makers to understand the scale and breadth of the industry before implementing any regulations.”
