Australian Standards: Congratulations are in order .... what's next?
Throughout last year, the SIA and a number of other community stakeholders conducted advocacy to lean on the long-standing problem of the distribution monopoly on Australian Standards. For us this involved our own lobbying and work on building coalitions of support. Later in the year I wrote a piece titled Australian Standards: The unfair exchange, we produced media on the issue, and we wrote to various Government Ministers and Prime Minister to make it clear that the end of the 15 year distribution contract (in December 2018) must mark the end of monopoly distribution of Australian Standards, and achieve a better, healthier and safer deal for Australian business.
As I described in the LinkedIn article, December was a watershed. The 15- year distribution contract was up, and SAI global was seeking to extend the monopoly for its 5-year option. Subsequently, Standards Australia and SAI Global have been in an arbitrated dispute, and only today (Thursday 7th February 2019) , Standards Australia announced that the Arbitrator had determined that future distribution would not be a monopoly.
This is an outstanding beginning and congratulations to Standards Australia's board and executive leadership team for their long-term commitment to the issue. They have created an opportunity for more than just distribution costs - in effect they are taking back control of what was theirs in the first place, and there are a number of initiatives that could flow from this decision.
However, there is still quite a journey yet to come between an announcement and a fair and equitable distribution process. Has anything been traded to SAI Global for abdication of monopoly distribution? Will the wider market decide costs or will minimum costs be set? Will Standards Australia lift its take on the sale of each Standard, or will they hold back and deliver the full value of new competition back to the marketplace? Will the Commonwealth stump up and contribute? Who will the new distributors be, and what barriers to entry may be created for them?
The next year will be a busy time for Standards Australia, and it will be important for them to get this right. Given their successful handling of the first phase, they deserve our confidence and support as they re-design the future. In their press release, Standards Australia’s CEO Bronwyn Evans emphasized the importance of stakeholder engagement as part of the transition: "Operating an open and transparent process is our core business. This is an opportunity to design a Standards Australia of the future that relies on all interested stakeholders, whose support and contribution will be vital in the improvement and innovation in the distribution of Australian Standards?,”
The Institute will be having input into the consultative process in the months ahead. Australian business deserves easy, affordable access to Standards - and this will improve health and safety outcomes. The federal government - who have thus far insistently stayed out of a 'private dispute between two companies' - might now want to look at the next bridge to cross, and make Standards open-source to all Australian business. The argument that somebody has to pay for standards is quite true. We the public can pay, just as we pay for all public goods such as health, education, regulatory authorities and their regulations. That might seem unlikely - but a year ago, many would have thought this most recent announcement was highly unlikely.
Finally, a big thank you to the many diverse members of the health and safety community who continue to voluntarily contribute their time and expertise to the ongoing development and maintenance of Standards through AS committees as SIA reps. The work continues.
workplace health & safety nerd studying neuroscience safety
5 年Great news for small businesses trying to do the right thing.
Governance Manager
5 年Congratulations David to you and your team for all your hard work and huge efforts. Well done ??
Senior Civil Engineer at WSP
5 年What happened? No longer hosted on Sai Global?
Managing Director at Vulcan Energy Pty Ltd- Australian Solar Systems Pty Ltd
5 年Can someone confirm this for me? My take is that SAA decided to IPO the distribution rights to standards in order to establish a capital fund, which was to provide an income to run the standards developments. It’s similar to starved state governments borrowing 7 years of GST income on the expectation that GST receipts would double each 5 years. The one good thing standards did is put an end date, so GFC etc effects on the income steams could be taken into account in future albeit, a lot later than liked. Is this correct? Being part of the standards experts, it does seem odd that SAA occupies some of the most expensive real estate in Sydney, which imposes high costs on volunteers who offer their time. What about moving to Redfern where transport is good, rents are lower and accomodation is less expensive. Perhaps grab a piece of the old workshops, would be a good fit I think.
Executive Manager Governance and Risk | Chair AIHS | Chair Ballarat Connected Communities | Director EGHS | GAICD
5 年This is fantastic news David Clarke and is a key step toward improving access to necessary health and safety information for Austrailan businesses! Thank you to all those who got on board to raise the profile of this long-standing issue of equitable access; and of course reiterate the appreciation of the many volunteers who represent SIA on Standards committees. Well Done!!