Standards Australia

About Standards Australia

Standards Australia was first established in 1922 through a memorandum of understanding with the Australian Government as a non-government set of standards developed in Australia (Standards Australia 2010, p.1). It was determined that all information developed and incorporated into the standards must be of a high quality and conform to the standards Australia guidelines.

The Standards Australia has adopted the AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 standards for risk management as the benchmark and standard for risk management within Australia. The AS/NZS ISO 31000 was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Committee of Risk Management as a revision of AS/NZS 4360:2004. It provides a generic framework for establishing the context, identifying, analysing, evaluating, treating, monitoring and communicating risk (AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009, p.14). Standards Australia is not part of government and they are not laws, regulations or even legal documents; however, because of their rigour, they are called up into legislation by government and often become mandatory. This is a decision made by the elected government at the time, and not Standards Australia. The standards are developed regularly and can be incorporated into legal documents.