In 2017, Standards Australia’s
Board committed to a thorough program of review of our Technical, Company and Accreditation governance arrangements.
The Technical Governance Review (TGR) led by independent consultants
cameron.ralph.khoury was undertaken through 2017 and 2018. A
final report (PDF) was released in April 2018 by cameron.ralph.khoury, and Standards Australia
released its response (PDF) shortly after.
A number of priorities were addressed in the response, with a clear focus on the six main steps of the standards development process, supported by a three-tiered reform approach. Standards Australia has outlined changes to be implemented as part of this review in the
Implementation Plan FY2019 (PDF).
The plan highlighted a number of deliverables throughout the four quarters of FY 2018-2019.
Highlights of initiatives delivered in the past 12 months are:
- Release of the first phase of the new contributor platform “Connect”
- The pilot for a new online Public Comment platform
- Monthly projects proposal process
- Kick-off workshops across all projects
- Mid-project surveys across all projects to identify and ascertain any early issues and provide feedback on Standards Australia’s performance
- Policy review on appointment, tenure and performance of Committee Chairs
- Independent facilitators and technical writers in place to provide assistance on complex technical committees. A framework and criteria on how to apply these resources has beendeveloped and rolled out with resources in place supporting committees in need.
- Incubator Projects including “red flags” and balloting by stage
Other committed initiatives are underway and will be delivered within this calendar year:
- Training for Committee Chairs and Nominating Organisations
- Development of framework to better resolve disputes
- Process for parallel adoptions of international standards to be rolled out
Throughout the program, we committed to update our stakeholders on progress of the work – view our
quarter 4 report.
Chair Policy
The TGR identified the role of Committee Chair as an important variable for committee effectiveness and feedback received from stakeholders highlighted that the performance of current Committee Chairs is inconsistent and does not always align with current expectations.
The cameron.ralph.khoury report suggested a number of initiatives relating to improving the performance of Committee Chairs. In our Implementation Plan, Standards Australia has committed, in addition to training for Committee Chairs to be provided both electronically and in person, to review the Policy on appointment, tenure and performance of Committee Chairs. The review of the policy and its approval was finalised in June 2019 and Standards Australia will now progress to Stage 2 of the initiative, by implementing the new policy via a staggered approach ensuring an orderly transition.
Key aspects of the new policy are:
- Formalising appointment and management of tenure (tenure will be formally 3 years with Standards Australia’s Production Management Group (PMG) approval needed for renewal);
- Establishing the concept of Chair-elect to ensure appropriate succession planning;
- Implementing a mechanism for ongoing monitoring of Committee Chairs’ performance by Standards Australia’s PMG.
Further information on next steps will be communicated to current Committee Chairs and members.
TGR - Looking forward (FY20)
As part of our Action Plan (2019-20), Standards Australia launched our
TGR Implementation Plan FY2020 (PDF) at our Council Meeting in May 2019. The implementation plan continues to deliver against key recommendations from the TGR and we are once again committed to informing our stakeholders on the progress of the work on an ongoing basis.