This month has been exciting, marking a new milestone for Standards Australia with the successful launch of the Standards Store. The fruition of months of work across the entire business, the store represents our continued commitment to deliver an improved experience for our users. Utilising innovative digital technology, it successfully adds an additional channel for customers.

The store is a big step in transforming service delivery. Increasing ways customers engage with Standards Australia while supporting our licensing and distribution framework will allow content to be used more broadly across the economy. Specialised products that provide pricing flexibility will facilitate economical access for many users. Building on this work will remain key to our broader better access strategy and development. I would like to thank our team and all of those who worked with us to make this happen.

As we move forward, we will remain focused on developing and delivering innovative standards across our 13 sectors. A notable area of development is in the renewable energy sector with recently published standards supporting the movement towards a more sustainable future.

Internationally, Standards Australia remains a trusted voice as we continue to strengthen relationships and long-standing bilateral ties. Additionally, we partnered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to deliver a program to build the capacity of ASEAN partners in the development and adoption of international critical and emerging technology standards for safety, security and trade.

— Adrian O'Connell, Chief Executive

Despite the challenges of 2020, Standards Australia’s work to support the Pacific Island regions has continued at full tilt with strong engagement with the region, including Australia’s longstanding bilateral ties and regional memberships in bodies including Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC) and Asia-Pacific Economic Commission (APEC).

Read more about our continued commitment in the region on our website.

Standards Australia has partnered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to deliver a robust program that will support knowledge building and standards collaboration across the ASEAN region in critical and emerging technologies.

The partnership will seek to support safety, security and continued market access in the ASEAN region by providing guidance for a more co-ordinated development and adoption of international standards.

Read more in our recent media release.

With inefficient halogen lamps proposed to be phased out in Australia from late 2022, consumers will soon be looking for more certainty around performance claims for light-emitting diode (LED) lamps.

The recently published standard now provides suppliers of LED lamps with clear guidance on how to measure important energy and functional parameters. These parameters include guidance around energy use, light output and colour rendering.

Read more in our recent media release.

Standards Australia has recently published a revised standard addressing the significant technology advancements that have occurred in the industry since the standard was last published in 2004.

The standard aims to increase safety requirements for the operation of boilers and other pressure equipment devices. For the first time, it includes requirements to address the emission of greenhouse gases from boilers.

Read more in our recent media release.

Australia made waves on a global scale for all of the right reasons as Standards Australia announced the formation of a mirror committee of the global IEC Technical Committee 114: Marine Energy - Wave, tidal and other water current converters.

Read about the progress of the committee and how Australia's ecosystem and landscape will contribute to the innovation of marine energy standards development on our website.

Standards Australia's contributors are a great source of insight on the challenges and opportunities that exist in their industries, governments and communities. The breadth of work we are involved in, historically, has made it difficult to understand these challenges and opportunities.

Standards Australia has put in place a function to analyse a range of data sources, including discussions directly with contributors, to help identify the key priorities and the major challenges faced in each sector. These insights will inform our Engagement team in their discussions to better align Standards Australia's work program with opportunities and challenges within a sector. It will also allow Standards Australia to understand the strategic issues faced by our existing stakeholders and to explore ways in which Australian Standards might help address the issues outlined.

As we come to the end of our third year of Technical Governance Review implementation, Standards Australia will host workshops in May to discuss with our contributors the work that’s been completed and priority areas for further review. This dialogue will help inform Standards Australia's TGR forward plan.

For more information please contact sem@standards.org.au

A range of projects are underway within the Technical Governance Review Implementation Plan for FY 2021- TGR Implementation Plan FY2021 (PDF)

For an update of the progress to date, see the Current Quarterly report.

‍

Standards Australia’s NEXTgen Training Program is an education initiative supporting our next generation of contributors and leaders.

The program selects emerging technical experts and provides them with an exciting opportunity to become involved in the national and international standardisation processes.

NEXTgen offers training and direct exposure to the standards development process through webinars, meetings and professional development activities.

Do you know someone who would be interested in applying for this opportunity? Email NEXTgen@standards.org.au for further information.

Standards Australia will be hosting a consultation session for all Australian contributors to ISO and IEC on 18 May 2021.

We invite participants to attend the event via Zoom to learn more about Australia’s presence in ISO and IEC governance groups and what’s to come in 2021-2022. It is also an opportunity to share your feedback on participation in international standardisation, including the adaptation to virtual standards development.

Register your participation.

‍

Sandeep Mathur is a great contributor to Standards Australia with his involvement in standards development for the past 20 years. Most recently, Mr Mathur serves as a Member of Standards Australia’s IT-030 Committee for IT Governance & Management, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the standardisation process through his experience in business and university. He has published several research papers in reputed journals, shares his knowledge in project management by regularly presenting at conferences and teaches portfolio and data management at the University of Technology Sydney.

‍Standards Australia (SA):When did you first become involved in standards development?‍

‍Sandeep Mathur (SM): I first became involved with standards development in 1997 prior to Y2K when there was lot of uncertainty around the world in what was going to happen when the clock ticked over to 1 January 2000.I ended up writing three handbooks “SAA SNZ HB104 - A Guide to Year 2000 Compliance,” “SAA SNZ HB121 - Year 2000 Compliance Measures for Personal Computers” and “SAA SNZ HB134 - Year 2000 Compliance Measures for Software”. I must say Y2K feels like a distant memory now; so much has happened since then. I formally joined IT-030, IT Governance and Management, in 2008 as a representative of the Project Management Institute.

‍SA:How do standards impact and interact with your industry?

‍‍SM: The commercial impact of the lack of standardisation within industry is well documented. Publications such as SA/SNZ TS 8019:2016, Governance of Benefits Realization for IT enabled Investments, where I was fortunate to be a Project Editor and principal author, provided guidance to the governing bodies to help them ask the right questions and promote the culture of accountability on benefits realisation. The use of this technical specification potentially reduces wastage which is prevalent in IT enabled investments in a large number of organisations and is a great example of how Standards Australia adds value to the industry through its committees and publications.

‍SA: In the growing world of sustainable cities and communities, where do you see the evolution of standardisation in your area of work?‍

‍SM: Standardisation and the need for global standards is here to stay. Transport for NSW is a key example of standards for data sharing with its Future Transport Technology Roadmap 2021-2024 revealing a major uplift in the NSW Government’s ambition to strengthen our global leadership in transport innovation and to create new uses of technology and data analytics for the safe and efficient movement of passengers and freight. This uplift leverages internationally recognised capabilities and experience, rich and open data sets and intelligent systems using the latest analytics to better manage transport networks and services. Each of the local and international delivery partners need to talk the same language when using real-time data from sensors and intelligent systems to create smart transport networks. The need for global standards will only grow as we embrace the new digital world.

‍Accolades

• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Fellow of the Australian Computer Society
• Industry Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney
• Chair of the ACS - National Diversity & Inclusion Council
• Member of ACS Member Advisory Board
• Member of Standards Australia’s IT-030 Committee for IT Governance & Management
• Currently undertaking a PhD at UTS in the efficient delivery of data science programs

Mr Mathur is the Director of Active Transport at Transport NSW. Throughout his professional career he has been on several for-profit and not-for-profit Boards with experience across project, program and portfolio management with:

• Transport for NSW
• Tourism Australia
• First Data
• Westpac
• HSBC
• Commonwealth Bank
• Deutsche Bank
• Société Générale
• IBM
• CSC
• Fujitsu

‍

Standards Australia represents Australia on the two major international standards development bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Our activities are reported on our International Updates page.

Highlights from April (PDF)

• Critical Minerals: New Area of Standardisation
• Deoxidizers and desiccants: Proposal for a New Field of Technical Activity
• Online Game Term: New Work Item Proposal

‍

Access the latest standards development news in your industry sector via our Sectors page.

The public comment process provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to make valuable contributions. With the launch of our public comment platform, draft standards currently open for comment are now available via Connect.

Public comment is now being sought on a revised draft for the Australian Standard for Chain of Custody for Forest and Tree Based Products – AS 4707.

The Australian Standard, along with the Australian Standard for Sustainable Forest Management (AS 4708), was developed by Responsible Wood. They are key components of the Responsible Wood Certification Scheme (RWCS).

AS 4707 underpins the endorsement of the PEFC Chain of Custody of Forest and Tree Based Products certification scheme operating in Australia.

“The Responsible Wood Certification Scheme is recognised as a world leading certification scheme for natural and plantation forests,” said Peter Zed, Chairman of the Standard Reference Committee.

“The Committee includes a broad range of organisations in Australia involved in forest management, forest research, auditing, community, environmental, indigenous and labour unions. These organisations are keen to get public feedback on how the revised Standard can be further improved,” concluded Mr Zed.

The Committee invites public comment on the draft standard. Comments should be submitted by 5pm AEST, Friday the 25th of June 2021, preferably using the submission form available from Responsible Wood.

The review process is being undertaken in accordance with Standards Australia procedures. Responsible Wood is accredited as a Standards Development Organisation (SDO) and is accredited to develop Australian Standards in accordance with the standards development procedures.

The Responsible Wood Certification Scheme, of which AS 4707 is a key component, is accredited by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). PEFC is the world’s largest certification system for sustainable forest management.

The Standard Reference Committee has sought to ensure that the revised standard (AS 4707) continues to be consistent with PEFC endorsement requirements.

The draft standard and the submission form can be downloaded from the Responsible Wood website.

For more information about the revision of the Australian Standard for Chain of Custody of Forest and Tree Based Products please contact: Simon Dorries (CEO – Responsible Wood) on 07 3359 1758 or email standards@responsiblewood.org.au.

‍