There are just 10 days left to sign a petition urging government to make Australian Standards available for free – or at a reasonable cost – to trades requiring them.
Australian Standards are documents setting out specifications and procedures to ensure products, services and systems are safe, reliable and consistent. The organisation with the responsibility of developing and maintaining standards in Australia is the very aptly named non-government body Standards Australia. There are more than 6,000 standards and associated publications it deals with, so the organisation has a pretty big task.
Observing some standards is voluntary, others mandatory – particularly where safety is an issue.
In the solar industry, there are eight relevant standards considered essential if stand-alone power systems are included. But it’s not just a case of ducking out to Standards Australia and downloading them. These documents aren’t free and the 8 standards will set back an installer more than $2,000 in total. And as standards are revised, the revisions must also be purchased.
A couple of grand mightn’t be a huge amount for some of the bigger solar power companies, but for small businesses and sole traders it’s a significant cost – and standards aren’t getting any cheaper.
Back in 2018, SolarQuotes’ Ronald outlined in great detail the case for making Australian Standards free to access – for everyone. His article noted the AS/NZS 3000 Electrical Wiring Rules standard cost $235.20 for a hard copy and $186.62 for the PDF version. That standard is now $249.45 for the hard copy and $224.73 for the “web reader” version, which cannot be saved or printed, when purchased from Standards Australia. There doesn’t appear to be a PDF option and even if there was, that can’t be saved or printed either.
Petition EN4104
A petition to the House of Representatives on the issue is currently active. Petition EN4104 – free or affordable access to Australian Standards, requests:
“.. the House to provide 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.”
The reasoning accompanying the petition cites an example of a small electrical engineering company that may need access to hundreds of standards for a single project, with the cost of these documents destroying any profit margin. It says the existing model is unsustainable and will potentially lead to incidents, inoperability and disruption to operational infrastructure.
It’s not clear on the page who or which organisation requested the petition, but Master Builders Victoria posted about it on LinkedIn last week, stating:
“Master Builders has continued to advocate for free Australian Standards for the building and construction industry … Master Builders members have asked for this, and we now need your support to make it happen.”
At the time of writing, 4,662 signatures had been collected for the petition, which closes on 27 April 2022. After the petition has closed, it will be presented in the House of Representatives and potentially referred to a Minister who will be asked to provide a response.
Who knows, perhaps Ronald’s dream of free standards for all will become reality. It would certainly make many tradies happy.
About Michael Bloch
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I actually really hate the SAA organisation.
Why?
Well nothing is free and readily available as PDF’s to download – with regular updates.
They get paid to produce this – and for those on limited incomes, they are exhorbitantly priced.
AND the dead give away is how they structure the pricing AND what it is they are selling.
You see if your doing the Australian Standard for bolts – the system, composed of a nut, a bolt and two washers, they don’t put out one standard at say $5.
No they also don’t put out the one standard for $250.
They put out THE standards – for the NUT at $250, for the bolt at $250 and the washers for $250.
They nit pickingly incrementalise and price gouge on all the granular elements.
In one sense, they are just “make work”, “price gouging”, thieves.
And in having developed some of the standards, SAA Australia pays no one but themselves, and they expect the work done to make the standard, to be done for free by all participants who developed the standard.
They also regularly update the standards, making the former version outdated.
Since much of what is done in Australia needs to comply with Australian Standard XYZ – and you have to keep up to date with the changes, they think they pretty much have you over THEIR price gouging barrel.
AND I have absolutely hated them since the days I was an impoverished apprentice – because not only do you NEED a copy of A particular standard, but you also need quite a few of the standards, and I found myself asking, “You want how much for this? And I need 10 different ones? How in the hell am I going to be able to afford to eat for the next 6 months at these prices?”
SAA Australia are just make work scam artists, who’s whole business model is based upon price gouging, when should be available for FREE.
As a retired professional electrical engineer who has worked in Canada with Canadian standards and in Saudi Arabia with United States standards and company standards, I was dismayed to find that Australia charges high prices for standards, yet expects them to be followed. It makes no sense.
Making them available online for free would ease the work load and work costs of MANY individuals.
Road rules are published and required to be followed. What is different about industrial standards?
Where does one find the petition which needs signing?