Tripartite relationship crucial for standards development

Australian Industry Group welcomes the release of Standards Australia’s End-to-End Review final report of the Standards Development Process and the organisation’s clear commitment to implementing its recommendations. 

The review is a significant and timely contribution. It recognises both the enduring value of Australia’s consensus-based standards system and the practical pressures it faces — from increasing regulatory complexity to declining volunteer capacity and rapid technological change. 

Importantly, it also acknowledges the system’s success depends not on any single participant but on a balanced and effective partnership between Standards Australia, nominating organisations and committee representatives. 

Australian Industry Group particularly welcomes Recommendation 5: Strengthen and deepen Nominating Organisation partnerships, which recognises and seeks to strengthen the three-way (tripartite) relationship between:  

• Standards Australia, as system steward and process manager; 

• nominating organisations, as representatives of organised stakeholder and constituency interests and  

• committee members, as technical experts contributing their time and judgement. 

This recognition is important. Over time, Australian Industry Group has observed that the practical operation of the system has, in some respects, moved away from this balanced model, despite its central role in supporting community consensus through standards development. A range of factors appears to have contributed to this shift. These include the legal framing of committee deeds, a strong emphasis on committee in confidence obligations and limited practical recognition of representatives’ responsibilities to their nominating organisations and constituencies. 

Given that committee deeds are legal instruments, the obligations they establish, particularly in relation to confidentiality, are understandably treated with care. In practice, however, this can sometimes create uncertainty for representatives about the appropriate scope of communication. This may discourage routine and necessary engagement, including required committee reporting, with nominating organisations. 

The effect of this has not been to enhance integrity but rather to constrain transparency, weaken feedback mechanisms and reduce confidence that committee positions consistently reflect the perspectives of the organisations and sectors that representatives are appointed to represent. 

The review’s call for three-way dialogue, earlier engagement of nominating organisations and clearer organisational accountability, particularly in relation to ballots, is a constructive step toward restoring that balance. 

Australian Industry Group therefore strongly welcomes the review’s framing of nominating organisations not as peripheral stakeholders but as active partners whose role must be reinforced, not diluted. Clearer expectations, better guidance and visible support from Standards Australia staff will be essential to making this work in practice. 

Standards are not produced simply to be technically correct. They are produced to be used. That requires: 

• ongoing information flows between representatives and their constituencies, 

• early testing of emerging positions and 

• organisational endorsement of key decisions, not just individual agreement. 

When these flows are constrained, standards risk losing relevance, legitimacy and ultimately uptake. The review rightly places this issue at the centre of reform. 

Australian Industry Group also welcomes the review’s considered treatment of digital tools and artificial intelligence (AI). The report recognises both the potential benefits of AI, particularly in drafting, editing and research and the reality that effective use requires careful implementation, experimentation and organisational fit. 

This aligns closely with Australian Industry Group’s own work on AI use and uptake across industry. Our research shows there is no single “right” approach to AI adoption. Different organisations will adopt AI in different ways depending on: 

• risk appetite 

• capability and resourcing 

• governance and assurance needs and 

• the nature of the task being performed. 

In the context of standards development, this reinforces the importance of choice, transparency and human oversight. AI should support experts not replace them, and organisations must be able to determine how best to integrate these tools in ways that align with their responsibilities and values. 

The End-to-End Review provides a strong foundation for reform. Australian Industry Group welcomes Standards Australia’s openness to stakeholder feedback and its willingness to address longstanding structural issues rather than treating them as operational irritants. 

Australian Industry Group looks forward to working with Standards Australia and other stakeholders as these recommendations are translated into practice and supporting a standards system that remains robust, relevant and sustainable for the long term.