[LINK] Media Release: Call for Australian Standards to be free to Australian

[Anthony Hornby]

This is great and I completely support the message. I've let the
Australasian University Safety Association know about SAI Global hiking
costs by 35% in 2018 essentially because they've decided we can pay more in
universities. Their pricing model has no relationship with costs and
creates significant barriers to the use of standards across industry and in
education, training and research.

The current model needs significant reform.

I personally think standards should be freely available in the way
legislation is freely available.

This is a good time to build pressure for change.

Anthony



On Fri., 30 Nov. 2018, 1:20 pm Stephen Loosley <StephenLoosley at outlook.com
wrote:

> Media Release: Call for Australian Standards to be free to Australian
> Businesses
>
>
> Date:  Thursday, 29 November, 2018 - 17:00
> Category: Media release
> Location: National News
>
>
> Chief Executive of the Safety Institute of Australia Mr David Clarke today
> labelled the prices being charged to Australian businesses to buy
> Australian and International Business Standards as excessive,
> unsustainable, and unfair to Australian business.
>
> Mr Clarke has urged the federal government to intervene to ensure the
> ending of arrangements which for years have led to unreasonably high costs
> to Australian businesses, and to ensure that Standards are provided to
> businesses free of charge.
>
> “Fifteen years ago, the distribution of Australian Standards was
> privatised. As a result, Australia’s employers are now paying excessive
> sums to access the Standards – and that cost no longer bears any
> relationship to the real production and distribution costs.
>
> Today, only a tiny fraction of those funds actually flows to Standards
> Australia, the creators of the standards.” Mr Clarke said.
>
> Mr Clarke called on the government to intervene in the current
> arrangements that give Hong-Kong based private equity firm Baring Private
> Equity the sole rights to distribute Australian standards through its fully
> owned subsidiary SAI Global.
>
> “It’s an unacceptable situation and Australian businesses deserve better.
> We have laws that drive businesses to comply with standards, but because of
> excessive pricing they are unaffordable to many businesses.”
>
> Mr Clarke explained that Australian Standards were critically important to
> assisting Australian companies meet health and safety obligations, and
> because of this, they should ideally be free to Australian business.
>
> “Australian business standards help companies create safer and healthier
> workplaces as well as meet a number of legal obligations. Providing them
> directly and at no charge will improve business performance, productivity
> as well as health and safety outcomes – all of which deliver significant
> benefits to the economy well in excess of the investment required to do it.
> It’s smart governance, smart business, and removes unnecessary red tape” he
> said.
>
> “The whole system falls down if Australian businesses are unable to afford
> the price of accessing the standards - especially smaller enterprises” he
> said.
>
> “Australian Standards are a public good, and critically important to
> healthy and safe business practice. We simply have to address the issue of
> their accessibility” he said.
>
> “It is an extraordinary thing that in today’s environment where
> competition policy should ensure markets operate equitably and
> competitively, that this sort of monopoly exists for the sale of a public
> good.” he said.
>
> The Safety Institute of Australia has written to the Federal Government to
> ask them to support Standards Australia to end the monopoly distribution
> arrangements, and to take the further step of ensuring that Australian
> Standards are provided freely available to Australian business free of
> charge.
>
> If you’re interested in reading further on the topic, please see attached
> David’s LinkedIn article below.
>
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/australian-standards-unfair-exchange-david-clarke/
> (link is external)
>
> ends-
>
> Media Enquiries: SIA
>
> Contact:               Patrick Murphy
> Tel.                        0419 870 697
> Contact:               David Clarke
> Tel.                        8336 1995
>
> ==
>
> Cheers
> Stephen
>
>
> Sent from Mail<https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> Windows 10
>
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
> Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>