RAA President’s Report | August 2025
Access to the Australian Standards Should be Free
Tim Lee, RAA President
August 2025
The Australian Standards are a set of documents that provide guidelines, specifications, and procedures to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, reliable, and consistent. They cover a vast range of industries, from building and construction to consumer goods, and are crucial for maintaining quality, promoting innovation, and protecting the public and environment.
While Australian Standards are currently funded through a user-pays model, making them freely accessible would have significant positive impacts, particularly for those related to public safety and essential industries. As RAA president, I have established a working group to support an advocacy approach to this issue which we feel is a barrier to positive outcomes in the built environments of regional communities in Australia.
Why Should Australian Standards be Free?
Enhanced Public Safety and Compliance: Free access would ensure that all stakeholders—from large construction firms to small businesses and individual builders—can easily access and comply with the latest safety and quality requirements. This would reduce the risk of non-compliance, errors, and ultimately lead to a safer built environment and better public outcomes, especially in critical areas like fire safety, structural integrity, and electrical standards.
Reduced Barriers for Small Businesses and Individuals: The current cost of purchasing standards can be prohibitive for smaller businesses, sole traders, and individuals. Free access would democratise essential knowledge, level the playing field and ensure that financial resources do not dictate adherence to best practices.
Increased Transparency and Shared Knowledge: Making standards freely available would encourage greater transparency within industries and promote a culture of shared knowledge. When guidelines are easily accessible, it fosters collaboration, drives continuous improvement, and can accelerate the adoption of new, more efficient, and sustainable practices.
Economic Benefits: Reduced compliance costs for businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), could stimulate economic activity and productivity. Easier access to standards can also reduce latent defects and design non-compliance, leading to fewer rework costs and legal disputes in the long run.
Alignment with Public Good Principle: Many standards, especially those related to public health and safety, serve as de facto public laws or regulations. Arguing that these critical standards should be considered public goods, freely available like other government regulations, strengthens the case for open access. Governments already fund initiatives that align with national policy goals, such as sustainability and energy efficiency, and could extend this to essential standards.
The creation of Australian Standards incorporates a broad range of expertise to ensure they are practical, relevant, and reflect best practice. This collaborative and rigorous process is heavily reliant on volunteer expertise and industry insight, however the same people that support their creation are then asked to pay for access.
Providing free access to Australian Standards referred to in the NCC ensures that design practitioners are able to comply in key areas of their work. As building certification requirements become ever more rigorous and complex, free access to essential design tools brings our conceptualisation, documentation and regulatory environments into alignment. This in turn fosters better outcomes for the broader community.
