Improving mandatory standards under the Australian Consumer Law – Decision Regulation Impact Statement

Date
Author
Treasury
Topic
Business and industry
Copyright
2024

Downloads

On 1 December 2021, Treasury released a consultation regulation impact statement on Supporting business through improvements to mandatory standards regulation under the Australian Consumer Law.

Submissions closed on 21 January 2022 and close to 60 submissions were received. Treasury also held consultation roundtables with a broad range of stakeholders.

Consultation update

Stakeholders strongly support the recognition of overseas standards in Australia, where they offer an equivalent level of safety.

Stakeholders also support changes which allow mandatory standards to reference the latest version of a standard.

The Australian Government is proposing amendments to the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) to:

  • allow safety standards and information standards to incorporate matters in instruments and other writings as they exist from time to time, including overseas product safety standards and other international standards
  • replace the Minister's ability to declare safety standards and information standards with an expanded ability to 'make' safety standards and information standards
  • update requirements relating to the nomination of alternative methods of complying with safety standards
  • allow the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to request certain information and documents in relation to compliance with safety standards and information standards.

The changes will:

  • allow the Minister to more easily recognise overseas product safety standards following advice from the ACCC that the overseas standard provides an equivalent level of consumer protection.
  • address complex regulations which make the product safety framework slow to respond to changes overseas and remove unnecessary compliance cost and confusion.

The changes are intended to ensure that compliance requirements in Australia do not fall out of step with international best practice as standards are updated.

Lower compliance costs for business will flow to consumers who will also get access to a wider range of safe, affordable, and innovative products on the market sooner.

Further detail is in the Decision Regulation Impact Statement.

Treasury has developed exposure draft legislation, which provides a further opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the detail of the reforms.

Related content