CEO Report


—Dr Bronwyn Evans, CEO

Standards Awards 2019 – Nominations now open!

Changes to the Standards Australia Academy

Many contributors will be aware of the Academy online learning platform provided by Standards Australia. This platform is for committee members and committee chairs to ensure their involvement in standards development is as productive and effective as possible.
 
To ensure this learning tool continues to deliver for the thousands of committee members there is an upgrade scheduled for Monday 4 March of this year with some exciting changes. The new platform will provide easy access to learning content, facilitate enrolment in face to face training across Australia, deliver webinars, host a resource library for supporting materials, and will be even more compatible with mobile devices.
 
Book your free training courses now.

How to write an Australian Standard
This one day course (09:30–16:00) covers the principles of writing clear, performance-based standards, with exercises in-class to delve further into some of the finer points of drafting. This workshop promotes an understanding of:
  • Expressions and language used within an Australian Standard.  
  • Drafting of specific clauses within an Australian Standard.
  • Referencing styles and formats.
  • Appendices.
  • Amendments.
  • International adoptions.
Upcoming workshops:
Melbourne, Tuesday 5 March
Level 18/2 Southbank Blvd, Southbank VIC 3006  
Sydney, Thursday 7 March
Level 9, 20 Bridge St, Sydney NSW 2000
Brisbane, Tuesday 12 March 
3/288 Edward St, Brisbane City QLD 4000
 
Please email academy@standards.org.au to enrol.  

Pipeline of improvements for the transmission of liquid and gas petroleum

Enabling digital trade – recommendations report released

In Conversation with Susan Jaques

 
Standards Australia: What do standards deliver for your sector?
Susan Jaques: In the energy sector, particularly transporting hydrocarbon fuels, it is essential that Standards are utilised by everyone in the industry.  Standards deliver a framework of consistent expectations – those of us working in the industry have a reliable set of requirements that are kept up to date through an active revision process.
 
SA: Was 2018 as productive as expected?
SJ: We knew 2018 would be a busy year with numerous competing priorities for our committees. 2018 ended up as a high achievement year for ME-038 and all of its subcommittees. The committee published four revisions in 2018 (AS 4822, and AS 2885 Parts 0, 1, 6).  In addition to those publications in 2018, we were also in the middle of revisions to 4 other Standards in our portfolio:  AS 3862, and AS 2885 Parts 2, 3 and 5.
 
SA: What does 2019 hold for your industry?
SJ: The look ahead for 2019 shows yet another productive year, with the next four Standards revisions expected to be published within the next twelve months.  In amongst those updates, we are also keeping an eye on the new (and revisited) possibilities of transporting hydrogen in our existing infrastructure, as well as carbon storage possibilities.  There are intriguing possibilities out there for a carbon-reduced future, and how our existing safe pipelines can be best utilised in a smooth and efficient transition to lower-carbon energy sources.
 
SA: What does the future of standardisation look like?
SJ: The future of standardisation, in a lot of ways, should be more of the same, but better.  It’s important that the basic tenet of Standardisation prevails: that it benefits the industry by streamlining the approach through a minimum expectation that every participant strives to meet.  One of the ways it can improve is potentially through crowd-sourced and real-time feedback for revisions and updates, perhaps utilising technology to have ongoing discussions about clauses and sections that may be causing misinterpretation in real-world applications.  The text that was put together in a meeting room rather than in the field can sometimes be interpreted very differently by those who weren’t in the room. Regardless of any challenges, the amount of technology being trialled at Standards Australia and the pursuit of innovation is exciting and the future is certainly looking bright.

Delivering changes to Governance

Our work program to address the findings of the Technical Governance Review is well underway, and various changes are being rolled out this month.

Committee Chair Policy
Standards Australia has drafted changes to the policies for Committee Chairs to better support this key role in Standards Development. Following review by the Standards Development and Accreditation Committee (SDAC), we are opening the updated version of SG-002 for consultation.

Register on our new Public Comment platform, review the changes and submit a comment.

We are also seeking feedback on the platform itself. Let us know how public comment worked for you by emailing comment@standards.org.au or by taking this quick survey.

Changes to proposals now in place
As mentioned in previous E-News, we’ve made some changes to the way we assess proposals for standards development work. Proposals can now be submitted at any time – there are no fixed submission dates. Also, the finalised proposals will be approved monthly rather than the old 6-monthly cycle.

These changes mean we can better respond to the needs of stakeholders, since our technical committees can kick off projects more quickly. We’re maintaining the requirements to assess proposals, to ensure every project successfully delivers benefits to Australia.

Since there are other opportunities to improve the proposal process, further projects are underway to make things better.

Our Stakeholder Engagement team is always available to assist you with developing successful proposals. Contact them at sem@standards.org.au.
 
More information
For information on the progress of projects under our Technical Governance Review (TGR) Implementation Plan for FY2019 (PDF), view the Quarter 2 Progress Report on our website.

Feedback sought: Public Comment pilot

The new platform for Public Comment was piloted before the holidays, for the standard AS 4632, Over-pressure and under-pressure shut-off devices, and has already received some really positive and insightful feedback so far.
 
The system is undergoing further enhancements in the meantime, including:
  1. Attaching supporting documents along with your comment
  2. Single sign on (SSO) with other Standards Australia applications
  3. Integration with other systems
  4. Support for Project Managers to upload comments on behalf of contributors when needed
Standards Australia is encouraging all committee members to trial the platform and let us know how public comment worked for you by emailing comment@standards.org.au or by taking this quick survey.

Sector Update

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

Drafts Open for Comment

The public comment process provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to make valuable contributions. View draft standards currently open for comment.

SDO News

Standards Australia endorses Responsible Wood trust mark

AS one of five accredited standards development organisations, Responsible Wood is subject to regular surveillance audits to ensure its scheme is independent, credible, transparent and technically competent.

The Standards Development and Accreditation Committee has appointed an independent auditor to oversee the Responsible Wood’s ‘check compliance’ to Standard Development Organisation (SDO) requirements.

The surveillance audit provides Responsible Wood with an opportunity to demonstrate its ongoing commitment to standards development.

Standards Australia is the owner of the standards and trademarks.

As one of five accredited SDOs, Responsible Wood is licensed to develop Australian Standards for forest certification through its ongoing SDAC accreditation.

“With the rebrand from the Australian Forestry Standard to Responsible Wood, we are the only forest certification scheme that has the endorsement of Standards Australia for sustainable forest management and chain of custody for forest products,” CEO Simon Dorries said.