Nick Johns-WickbergFree access to Australian Standards on the agenda
Australian construction leaders have met with Standards Australia at Parliament House in Canberra to address access to Australian Standards.
The seven organisations present at the meeting were:
- Standards Australia
- The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC)
- Master Builders Australia
- Master Plumbers Australia and New Zealand
- Master Electricians Australia
- Housing Industry Association (HIA)
- The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA)
In a joint statement, the organisations acknowledged that access to standards is a critical issue impacting safety, productivity, workforce capability, and the delivery of housing and infrastructure that underpin the National Construction Code (NCC).
What was discussed
Topics discussed at the meeting included:
- The essential role of Australian Standards in delivering safer, higher-quality, and more consistent construction outcomes
- The longstanding and significant contribution of industry to Australian Standards
- The persistent barriers caused by fragmented, outdated, and inconsistent access to standards, particularly for those designing, building, and certifying in the field
- The negative impacts on workforce productivity, compliance, and the timely delivery of housing, infrastructure, and net zero transition
- The shared ambition of industry and government to lift housing supply, improve construction quality and safety, guide the transition to net zero and drive national productivity gains.
Moving forward
In response, the organisations have agreed to:
- Work together and collectively as industry leaders to advocate for a national standards access model for the construction sector to eliminate the costs and barriers to accessing standards mandated by laws, and together create enhanced compliance tools
- Champion a model that empowers innovation and education, improves compliance, empowers practitioners, reduces work and rework, and supports both today’s workforce and the next generation of skilled workers
- Present a unified proposal to government that removes unnecessary barriers to Australian Standards, strengthens the construction sector and unlocks productivity gains.
By removing the paywall, this change could play an important role in progressing government deregulation and boosting industry productivity.
Free standards on the horizon?
In their joint statement, the organisations said removing the paywall around standards could play an important role in progressing government deregulation and boosting industry productivity.
Standards Australia CEO Rod Balding says improving accessibility to standards is a key goal of his organisation.
“The opportunity to work collaboratively with the government and industry to reduce the upfront cost would provide a substantial red tape reduction boost for the industry, and in turn improve the useability and penetration of the NCC and associated Australian Standards,” Balding says.
“With more innovation and new AI tools coming online, the potential to move to free online standards would also act as an important step towards smarter integrated standards and help support a more fit for purpose regulatory system in 2025 and beyond.”
Standards Australia CEO Rod Balding
ASBEC CEO Alison Scotland says the move could be an effective way to improve sustainability in the construction industry.
“Ensuring that our construction industry has the skills and the capability to deliver buildings that are safe, healthy and affordable to run is a no-brainer,” Scotland says.
“Access to the right information at the right time helps unlock our policy vision and accelerate Australia’s net zero transition. We commend Standards Australia for bringing industry together to progress this important enabler for productivity and sustainability.”
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Comments
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Making access to AS is a no brainer and should have been done years ago. The paywall to access AS is a burden to all size businesses and excessive for small businesses.
The regulators cannot expect significant improvement in build quality if the cost to access standards is excessive.-
Agree
And what is worse, the site that owns the standards is not Australian owned, profit going OS
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Making standards free could have unintended conseqeunces. I see no problem paying for standards, as long as the price is fair. $50 per standard would be a sweet spot, where revenue was maintained but access was fair and reasonable.
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Australian Standards should be FREE, no need to explain further.
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