The CFA have provided consumer representation to government standards-setting bodies for more than 20 years. The Consumer Representatives on Standards Australia Committees Project has been managed by the Consumer Law Centre of Victoria (CLCV) on behalf of the CFA since April 1999.

Standards Australia is the main standards-setting body in Australia . It provides more opportunity for consumer input in standards development than other standards-setting bodies in other parts of the world, which tend to exclude public involvement. It provides funding and a clear mechanism for consumers to be represented on its committees, through the Project.

 

Consumer representatives on Standards committees tend to have a high level of ability to undertake committee work as well as expertise in the subject of the Standards prepared by their committees. Where they do not possess specific technical expertise, their role in generally advocating the interests of consumers is still invaluable. Many Standards offer a high level of consumer protection, in relation to product safety, consumer access to essential services, corporate policies, management structures, and so on, as a direct result of the input of consumer representatives in their development. That is why consumer representatives on standards committees understand that working to produce Australian Standards is an important and worthwhile task.

Areas of interest to consumers have expanded in recent years. This situation is reflected in the increase of committees focusing on issues of consumer concern. For example, while product safety is still important, consumers now also have concerns about environmental issues, information technology, financial security, and so on.

On the other hand, there is a perception among consumer representatives that the effectiveness of standards for consumer protection has also diminished for a number of reasons, including:

•  Australia 's commitment to international trade agreements that prohibit the development of local standards (that may be stronger than existing international ones);

•  The Federal Government's reduced involvement in Standards, particularly through funding cuts to standards-setting and consumer organisations such as the CFA;

•  A continuing reluctance from some key industry forces to take a precautionary approach to consumer protection; and

•  Widespread lack of awareness about the effect of Standards and mechanisms for public involvement in developing them. This applies within the consumer movement as well as industry, and in the wider community.

 

Project aims:

The main goal of the Project is to recruit suitable and effective consumer representatives to standards committees that develop standards of direct interest to consumers. Those committees are chosen according to a list of priorities, as follows:

 

•  Health, safety and welfare of vulnerable consumers, and overwhelming public interest

•  Health, safety and welfare of consumers generally

•  Accessibility and fair trading of essential services

•  Information - consumers' right to know

•  Environmental impact of services and products

•  Fair trading of non-essential services and products

 

Other tasks of the Project include:

•  Maintenance of a database of consumer representatives and committees;

•  Involving consumer representatives in important international standards meetings;

•  Publicising draft Australian Standards;

•  Conducting consumer awareness campaigns, including publishing articles about the importance of consumer input into standardisation; and

•  Developing briefing papers on significant issues that arise for consumer representatives on their standards committees.

Current standards committees and consumer representatives (List)

As at August 2005, there are 40 consumer representatives who sit on 65 standards committees.

Most consumer committees deal with product safety. These include, for instance, committees that deal with products for children, motor vehicles, household and electrical appliances and a range of other products used widely in the Australian community, like sun protection products.

Other committees deal with building-related matters (eg access for people with disabilities, termite management), environmental issues (eg environmental labelling, environmental management), other health and safety issues (eg handling of chemicals) and issues of high public significance (eg health information, business governance).

Procedure for nominating consumer representatives to standards committees:

The CFA is often invited by Standards Australia to nominate consumer representatives to standards committees. The CFA also identifies committees that require consumer representatives, and may request to join them. It is also possible to identify issues that require standards to be developed. In this case, Standards Australia may be requested to set up an appropriate committee with consumer input.

Committees that require consumer representatives are regularly publicised in both the CFA's and the CLCV's bulletins.

Interested people may apply to, or may be directly recruited by, the Standards Co-ordinator. Suitable representatives are then nominated to appropriate committees.

Consumer representatives are entitled to be reimbursed by the CFA for their travel expenses of attending standards meetings, including interstate airfares and accommodation where necessary. Standards Australia does not pay sitting fees to committee members.

The role of a consumer representative on a standards committee:

 

Standards committees work to develop and revise Australian Standards, and also have input into the development of standards by the International Standards Organization (ISO) of which Australia is a member.

Consumer representatives will usually be requested to join a committee when it is first constituted to develop a standard. Requests for the preparation of new standards and the revision of existing standards may come from any person or organization, and from a relevant standards committee.

Consumer representatives are expected to participate in all meetings of their committee, to develop the standard through negotiation and consensus with the rest of the committee. Their role is to advocate for the consumer interest to be taken into account, and for the standard to include acceptable requirements for consumer protection. If the committee cannot achieve this aim through consensus, the consumer representative is entitled to vote against the publication of the standard.

Committee members are permanently appointed, as standards committees are not disbanded once their standard has been published. Committee members have a duty to monitor the use of their standards, and request revision and amendments, when necessary.

The development of a standard takes approximately 12 months, including about 4 meetings of the committee, in most cases. The procedure is as follows:

 

•  Approval to develop a standard is granted by the relevant standards committee.

•  The Preliminary Draft of the standard is prepared. The Preliminary Draft may either be a relevant overseas standard, such as an ISO Standard, or a draft prepared by Standards Australia in consultation with relevant interests.

•  The Preliminary Draft is considered, then Committee Drafts, and finally, a Public Comment Draft, are prepared with the committee's input.

•  The draft is made available to, and comments are invited from, the public. (This phase takes approximately three months.)

•  The public comments are considered by the committee.

•  A Final Draft is prepared for postal ballot.

•  The committee votes on the Final Draft by postal ballot.

•  Consensus is achieved if no negative votes are received. If negative votes are received, the committee must try to resolve them. Standards Australia may try to negotiate directly with the negative voters, and/or a further committee meeting may be required. If one or more negative votes remain unresolved, the minimum requirements for reaching consensus will still be met if:

•  A minimum of 67% of eligible voters have voted affirmatively;

•  A minimum of 80% of votes received are affirmative; and

•  No major interest involved with the standard has collectively maintained a negative vote.

•  If the minimum requirements for reaching consensus are achieved, the draft may then be submitted for final approval to the appropriate Standards Policy Board at Standards Australia. If approval is granted, the draft may then proceed directly to publication as an Australian Standard.

 

If you wish to join a standards committee as a consumer representative, would like information about draft standards or new and existing committees, or wish to discuss any aspect of this Project, please contact the Standards Co-ordinator:

 

Jo Higginson

Standards Co-ordinator

C/- Consumer Action Law Centre

Tel: (03) 9670 5088   (Mondays. Wednesdays and Fridays)

Email: jo@consumeraction.org.au

Postal: Level 7, 459 Little Collins Street , Melbourne , Vic, 3000