Parliament petitioned for unrestricted access to Australian Standards

A petition to the Australian parliament’s House of Representatives seeks free or affordable access to essential standards that govern the safety and consistency of products services and systems, including design and construction.

In many instances, adherence to Australian Standards is mandated by legislation, however, access to the standards are often cost prohibitive, particularly to small business and sole traders.

Principal petitioner Andrew Gardso, an electrical engineer, states, “This in essence will force small organisations and sole traders out of business or necessitate services being performed without having access to these standards.”

Standards Australia offers to small business that, for example, can cost more than $2673 for three years’ access to the National Construction Code set of standards.

Association of Consulting architect supports the call for free or affordable access to Australian Standards.

“There are 140 Australian Standards referenced in legislation relevant to construction, but accessing these costs many hundreds of dollars each,” ACA national president John Held wrote in 2019.

“The lesson learnt from the National Construction Code (NCC) is that moving from a paid model to a free model has a huge impact on getting the message through – NCC subscribers increased from 4,000 to 200,000 with free access.”

In an email to members, the ACA said, “Australian Standards are essential to ensure the safety of our infrastructure, buildings and the communities we serve,” the ACA said. “In the architectural profession, a number of these Standards are mandated to ensure compliance and adherence to specific requirements. However, Australian Standards come at a high cost, which is particularly prohibitive for smaller practices who have to purchase new versions of these standards as they are constantly being revised.

“The lack of accessibility and affordability inevitably leads to compromising standards due to the prohibitive costs involved, posing a significant risk to building confidence and safety.”

The petition requests “stronger oversight and/or mandates to the organisations controlling access to Australian Standards to make these readily available for free or at a reasonable cost to all people in Australia who require these standards to perform their duties.”

At the time of publication, the petition has had more than 13,000 signatures. The closing date for signatures is 27 April. View the petition on the Australian Parliament House website.