Law Council of Australia

Business Law Section

Lowering Barriers to the Adoption of International and Overseas Standards

Submission Date: 1 August 2025

This submission is made by the Infrastructure and Construction Committee of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia (the Committee) in response to the Consultation Paper National Competition Policy: Lower barriers to the adoption of overseas standards in regulation.

This submission address Consultation Questions 1 and 4 of the Consultation Paper and is primarily focused on access to Australian Standards.

Key Points

The key matters the Committee wishes to bring to Treasury’s attention are as follows:

  1. an underlying tenet of the rule of law requires that the law is accessible, both to the public and parliament and at no cost;
  2. the Australian Construction Industry is required to legally comply with Australian Standards as a matter of law and contract; and
  3. access to Australian Standards is controlled by Standards Australia, which both charges fees for access and imposes technological locks on access that limit fair use and can hinder compliance with the law.

The Committee recommends that steps be taken to ensure that Australian Standards referenced in Australian legislation are freely available at no cost where compliance is required by law with an Australian Standard.

The Committee otherwise considers that mandatory compliance with standards that are not freely available is contrary to the tenets of proper law-making and that law-makers should desist from incorporating such standards into the law.

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Last Updated on 11/11/2025

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