Standards Announcement Welcomed By BusinessNZ

BusinessNZ welcomes the announcement by Minister Scott Simpson that Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand have reached an agreement whereby joint standards will be properly funded and there will no longer be commissioning fees for New Zealand industry for the development of joint Standards.

BusinessNZ Director of Advocacy Catherine Beard says this is something industry has campaigned on, for many years.

"Standards Australia has been well resourced over the years, while Standards New Zealand was the poor cousin, and NZ businesses were having to pay to participate in joint standards development. This was on top of contributing experts sitting on committees and getting themselves to meetings in Australia.

"As a result of the cost barrier, and the 100 percent user pays model operating in New Zealand, there were about 500 joint standards that were de-jointed since 2016.

"Industry standards are needed for product safety, regulatory compliance, successful exporting and importing, efficiency, consistency, and many other needs. All manufactured items must be manufactured to recognised Standards. All recognised trade training in NZ is linked to Standards.

Beard says many Standards in use in NZ are Australia-NZ Joint Standards, created by joint work between industry groups on both sides of the Tasman.

"Joint Standards are needed as Australia and NZ are each other’s biggest market for manufactured exports and given the closeness between the two economies and business sectors. This has been particularly challenging for construction and building industries, where safety could be compromised through inadequate Standards."

Beard says the Minister, Standards NZ and Standards Australia should be congratulated on progress to fix the problem and that it would be a big relief for Industry Associations on both sides of the Tasman.

"BusinessNZ will continue to monitor this issue to ensure that Standards New Zealand is adequately funded to ensure this never happens again and that NZ can play its part in global standards development."

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