The government just committed $42.7 million of your money to solve a problem a not-for-profit could fix itself tomorrow for zero tax dollars.
Let me tell you about Standards Australia.
They own the documents tradies, engineers and other professionals are legally required to follow.
Wiring a house? That’s a standard. Installing solar? Standard. Building anything? Standards, standards, standards. Mandatory. Written by volunteers. Owned by a not-for-profit.
And they typically charge hundreds of dollars a pop to read them.
The 2026 Federal Budget said “enough!”. It committed $42.7 million to make mandatory standards free. Good instinct. Catastrophically wrong solution.
Because Standards Australia doesn’t need your money. They have $362 million sitting in a managed investment portfolio returning nearly 10% a year. That’s $31 million in investment income last year alone. They have 292 CBD employees costing $44.7 million a year who publish documents written by volunteers.
Their executive pay packet jumped 13% in a single year to $3.2 million.
They’re not struggling. And they just convinced the government to hand them another $10 million a year anyway.
The History In One Paragraph
In 2003, Standards Australia sold its publishing arm to SAI Global, gave them an exclusive 15-year licence to sell mandatory public documents, and walked away with a 10% royalty. SAI Global got flipped to Hong Kong private equity for $1.1 billion. Then flipped again to Intertek for $855 million. When the exclusive deal expired in 2019, they took back distribution — and kept the paywalls on the PDFs.
The ‘Free’ Access Is A Joke
Under pressure to give free access to the public, in 2023 they launched the Reader Room. Three documents per year with 24-hour access windows. Non-commercial use only. Explicitly not for professionals. Tradies, architects, engineers – the people legally required to comply – locked out.
Now the government is paying $42.7 million to expand access to professionals. God knows what hoops the pros will have to jump through to get access. If nothing changes, they’ll be read-only PDFs downloaded from a members-only website that can’t be printed, or shared, or uploaded to AI, need special desktop software to open, and is software locked to prevent cut and paste of clauses into other documents.
For years have been calling for free access to Australian Standards, such as in this 2022 petition, but the proposal in the federal budget isn’t how to do it.
PDFs. In 2026.
Standards that get amended constantly served as static files with no built-in version control, no amendment alerts and no clause linking. Professionals working off superseded documents they bought two years ago. Buildings built to outdated specs. Solar systems signed off against old wiring rules.
This Has A Name
The philosopher Ivan Illich called it counterproductivity: the moment an institution grows so focused on self-preservation that it systematically produces the opposite of its founding purpose. Schools that make people less curious. Productivity software that makes companies less productive.
Standards Australia was founded to make technical standards accessible and useful to Australians. It is now the primary reason they aren’t.
The Solution Already Exists And Costs Almost Nothing
Go look at legislation.gov.au. Every Act of Parliament. Always current. Always consolidated. Amendment history. Point-in-time viewing. Clause-level linking. Free. Forever.
That’s what standards need to be. Living web documents, not dead PDFs.
The open-source tools to build it exist. The whole platform could be running for a couple of million dollars a year.
Standards Australia’s $362 million endowment, run conservatively, generates $25 million a year. A lean 80-person organisation running a world-class open web platform costs maybe $18 million. No government grants needed. No paywalls. No tokens. No PDFs. Just mandatory public documents, free, online, always current.
Here’s What I Want
I’m not interested in politely watching ‘free standards’ get implemented badly and expensively while industry bodies put out grateful press releases.
I want Australian Standards published as open web documents, funded by Standards Australia’s own endowment, with no restrictions whatsoever on professional or commercial use. Permanently, not for four years until the grant runs out.
That means:
- Making noise publicly while the implementation details are still being negotiated, right now
- Putting direct pressure on Standards Australia’s board to justify why a $362 million fund needs taxpayer grants
If you’re an architect, engineer, builder, sparky, plumber, solar installer, or anyone else who has ever had to buy a PDF to know what the law requires of you, I want to hear from you.
If you’re a lawyer who understands how to push this harder through legal channels, I really want to hear from you.
If you’re a journalist who smells what I smell, call me.
If you’re a politician who wants to be the person who actually fixed this properly rather than papering over it with $42.7 million, this is your moment.
We have a narrow window while the implementation is live and negotiable. Let’s use it.
Phase Shift is a weekly opinion column by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock. Subscribe to SolarQuotes’ free newsletter to get it emailed to your inbox each week along with our other home electrification coverage.
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I am retired electrician/contractor, so how do I “make a noise”? Who to exactly (in government)?
It needs a focal point or points as I doubt Standards Aus is going to help.
I totally agree. I have contributed, on a voluntary basis, to several Australian standards in the road safety field. One referenced several other standards that would also need to be purchased by product designers. Total cost well over $1000 for the lot!
As with electrical standards, this means important safety-related information is not readily available and could be out-of-date.
Interestingly New Zealand, at one stage, required some standards, that are mandatory through regulation, to be freely available.
This is a huge issue for solar design engineers such as myself, requiring access to many electrical standards which cross reference each other and then additional mechanical standards for mounting panels (i.e. wind loading). With the regularity of updates it becomes a bloated financial burden for a small business.
Aus Standards should have been a subscription service to access all material in the first place. A few hundred dollars per annum for ALL, though ridiculously not free, would have been manageable. A few hundred dollars for each document is absolutely mental.
Bang on.
I’m in none of the above categories of people but have enough interest to have been frustrated for years by the idiotic paywalling / lack of access arrangements used by the current system.
Another example of counterproductive standards are those used for vehicle safety systems. We’ve ended up with so many “driver assistant aids” which themselves result in more driver distraction and less safe vehicles.
It’s classic case of ANCAP being in a self-justification loop rather than actually testing/checking whether this stuff works in the real world, seeing how actual drivers respond to the forced deployment of this tech.
Road user fatality rates in Australia have been steadily climbing for years.
Absolutely unequivocally agree and some great ideas as an alternative solution. How can we expect our young Tradies to learn the right way to do things in a more complex world if the basic guidance / minimum ‘standards’ are not available to them? Super work Finn let’s grab this opportunity for a permanent fix
Excellent article ! Another telling example of neo liberalism disaster of the last 30 years ( and more ). Privatise the profits , socialise the losses. A self serving recipe for inequality and dysfunction. What ever happened to policy that benefitted the general good? What was that phrase “ government for the people by the people”.
Nobody in the world has “government for the people by the people”.
just yet. We get a one-day chance to choose oligarchs A or B every 3 or 4 years. That’s hardly democratic.
There is a worldwide movement under way towards democracy, and it has been building for the last 20 years or so, but not fast enough for my liking.
If we implemented democracy, we would find that many seemingly-instractable issues, such as tax reform, housing/homelessness, emissions reduction, “youth crime”, access to mandatory Australian Standards, etc, would suddenly become something we could deal with.
Keep and ear out for “sortition” and “citizens’ assemblies”, support it if you get the opportunity, and advocate where you can.
Real democracy! Of the people. By the people. For the people.
(https://youtu.be/lOsbww9-Q6s)
Elections are better than a military junta (Myanmar), or a theocracy (Iran), or an absolute monarchy (Saudi Arabia), but we can do better: https://youtu.be/5ysFjMDouYs
I’m Old Gregg!: – “If we implemented democracy, we would find that many seemingly-instractable issues, such as … would suddenly become something we could deal with.”
An informed population is the foundational pillar of any healthy democracy. It equips citizens to discern facts from misinformation, analyze complex policies, and hold their elected officials accountable. Without accessible, accurate information, public participation loses its intended impact.
I don’t think most Australians are adequately informed about critical issues.
In 2025, half of the Australian public (51%) say ‘global warming is a serious and pressing problem’.
https://poll.lowyinstitute.org/report/2025/climate-change-and-energy/
Meanwhile, global warming reached circa +1.43 °C in May 2026.
https://apps.climate.copernicus.eu/global-temperature-trend-monitor/
The current rate of warming is about 0.32 °C/decade & accelerating.
https://bsky.app/profile/climatecasino.net/post/3moduswj7zk24
BRAVO! I’ve been saying for years that Australian Standards are a total rip off. I’m a recently-retired designer and builder and for most of my career I’ve struggled to cope with the fact that I was legally required to follow standards that were really difficult and/or expensive to access. The fact that they were so tightly controlled by a government-granted monopoly always stank.
I totally agree that using tax-payer money to keep propping up the monopoly is not that right way to make the standards more accessible. Free online access to the latest version sound like a much better idea.
I hope you win this one.
Great article Finn! Well done. I am retired, but as a professional civil engineer worked with AS for 50 years to specify all works as required. Our company paid the access fees so we didn’t see that “contribution”. You are right this is an “essential” service best delivered by an independent body like Standards Australia but with a fit for purpose provision of service model Their success should be measured by uniformity of rules nationally, and compliance levels not a board or executives “profitablity”. I hope your campaign is effective. Unfortunately it will never be an election issue just another item on the “over and unnecessary expenditures” list!
Any point to an abbreviated form of this post being published on here so interested readers could copy, paste and hit send to their local Federal member?
Short, as their admin staff who read their emails don’t have a great attention span, before sending back a thank you blah, blah blah response.
This is one of my old Hobby Horses. Recently, I tried to gain access to AS 62056, but was told as it is an International Standard, it was not available to view.
I have worked indirectly on some Health Standards: They are an incredible amount of work that is given basically ´free´, but paid for by the employer & some voluntary time.
In my time on this planet, I have needed access to Standards on many occasions: I designed 2 of disability access units: I resorted to using an out-of-date copy of the Standard in that case. Also access to AS3000 to check some of the shoddy work undertaken by a solar installer. Then lately, I have been interested in accessing Electricity metering data, which I feel is imperative for future VPP battery use. This is mandated from 2028, but only if the meter is updated! Why cant existing meters be enabled for read only access as is done in Europe (with the same meters we use).
I agree that all Australian used Standards (inc IEC) should be available.
Powerfully put, Finn. It wouldn’t be so bad if only one standard were needed, but the damned things call up others, and the cost snowballs. If ten years of free updates followed, and a cross-referencing standards bundle was capped at $200, then it’d be more reasonable.
If you start up a petition, the main limitation on sign-ups will ability to spread the message, I figure. It’s a grand cause, much needed.
When I published Quality System procedures on a corporate intranet, each page bore a message along the lines of “Controlled Copy. Obsolete if printed.” That disallowed claiming that compliance with a (potentially outdated) printed copy was system compliance. But national standards compliance is more like peristaltic motion, I think. Propagation ripples – but not with standards blockage.
As an owner-builder, I too am outraged that I am obliged to conform with standards which would cost me thousands to access. As a pensioner, I don’t feel the need to subsidise extravagant salaries for people running a system designed to frustrate its users.
It is also important that consumers have access to the standards, especially given the low standards displayed by many builders at present. How can the buyer of a new property know if the house or apartment has been properly built if they are not allowed reasonable access to the standards?
There is actually no need for a new open web platform. The Commonwealth already runs the Federal Register of Legislation, and the $42m (or rather less) should be spent there.
See: https://www.legislation.gov.au
The Commonwealth Register is largely mirrored by Austlii, a free, and publicly accessible legal database operated jointly by the UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law.
See: https://www.austlii.edu.au
I agree! Standards should be part of our legislation: always the latest version always available and free.
I hope you have sent this to your local MP and the relevant Ministers and shadow ministers Finn. Bob Katter is my local member and I would be happy to send him a copy as he only deals with people who live in his electorate.
I was actually excited to hear about this in the budget, as I’ve recently started an engineering consultancy.
But it’s not even ALL Australian Standards, searching a list I can’t see any commitment to specific standards either. I have taken on a client in a new area, should I buy it or wait?!?! Who knows
Sometimes these are literal photocopies of ISO standards, the whole thing is a joke. I’ve pretty sure they were going to make them all available a few years ago, but that seems to have been scrubbed from the internet
Finn. You need to look at “Austlii”. Australasian Legal Information Institute. Your platform already exists. Nothing to create. Standards are laws too arent they? They update and evolve. The changes are tracked
Austlii “publishes” law. Tax law, Commonwealth, State, etc and most Federal and some other court and tribunal decisions … Every piece of law. And it has URL indexing. Its not PDFs. It the past and present. All you need is web access.
Its free. It works Very well. All the Government needs to do is prescribe that it be used.
Retired from housing construction after nearly 40 years in the industry, over 15 in senior management.
Good article and full agreement.
At least in the 80’s & 90’s you could go to the state library and read all standards if you wanted to. For commercial interests libraries don’t have them now, as best I’m aware.
Standards ought to be operated as a technical reference library as you say the same as legislation with access to out of date versions suitable for forensic investigation. I had purchased a .pdf of a handbook, it only lasted 12months. I had to reference it so I bought a hardcopy that won’t miraculously disappear when needed. Libraries make more sense, although not commercially viable unless they are charging access fees, subscriptions. The number of standards required to comply with the NCC is enormous and is another contributor to housing costs. The standards are reviewed every five years, so, theoretically, engineering practices must renew their standards library every five years. Thankfully the NCC is a free downloadable .pdf. No reason for standards not to be available as a library service.
Go on!
I remember being sent printed amendments we had to cut up with scissors and stick over the superseded passage in our expensive hardback Wiring Rules.
Apprentices cannot believe the schemozzle of standards now.
Make an app, they say, get AI to do it.
Good on you Finn, hope you win.
I think if you look at the SolarQuotes archieve, you will see that I have mentioned on many occasions the need for any Standard referenced in any Australian Law or Regulation should be freely available to view (& not restricted like the current viewable platform, that is to 4 views/year)
The Austlii release is a good idea, & the Govt could subsidise the costs, but other sites are OK, as long as they are Govt controlled & free access.
Ditto -retired Sparky
Great summary and excellent proposal. You are dead on the money with this one.
I worked for the state government and helped write a couple of Australian standards over the years – IE I was a co author – still cost us hundreds of dollars per copy of it…
They should not be allowed to make a standard mandatory if it is not freely available.
Used to work in IT & Audit. This is not just a Solar/Electrical/Building problem, it’s endemic across all industries. I still have a copy of “AS ISO/IEC 27001 & 2” that a previous boss paid a fortune for. Included in a preface are words to the effect of “this is just a copy of the ISO standard, in the text we couldn’t be bothered changing International Standard to Australian Standard so just make your own mental adjustments.” Oh, and swap commas for decimal points, etc.
How can you possibly hope to promulgate & enforce standards unless everybody has a copy?
Good luck with this Finn, I hope you win. Go talk to Will Shackel, of Nuclear for Australia, about how to build a campaign – he’s good.
Hi George,
Appreciate the sentiment. I’m curious to know who pays for young Mr Shackel to be a patsy for business as usual coal?
Steam engines are popular with children while “Cheap nuclear is just 10 years away” is a fantasy book title for kids now 70yo
Nuclear got a start as public relations for the bomb industry. The “peaceful atom” cost billions upon billions but “cheap nuclear power” is still only a decade away, as it always will be.
Meanwhile rooftop solar is here, now, delivering on the “too cheap to meter” nuclear promise.
Batteries and EVs are now screaming down the same learning/cost curve that solar and wind has before them.
China installed more solar *last year* than the world has installed nuclear, ever.
Deploying the first terrawatt of solar capacity took 60yrs
The next terrawatt took 2 years
G’day Finn,
I know your focus is specifically sparky / solar stuff, but as you know, the AS/NZ standards cover a lot more than construction related areas.
my area of specialty is (was, now retired) Information Systems and Technology, with special interest in IT Security, of which there are a number of documents based in the ISO 27xxx series.
And no doubt, there are many other areas where there are standards hidden behind a paywall for other areas of industry.
Putting a price on these documents must be having a negative effect on all the areas that are required to comply with them.
whoever thought this was a ‘good idea’ when the paywall was first mooted needs a smack the upside with a housebrick.
best regards,
harry
When the government makes laws that we are supposed to know, it is extremely odd that we can’t see them without barriers the moment they are complete. And standards are a law.
In full agreement.
Like many I have spent time on a committee writing these things!
I had no idea why there was this barrier to access.
Emailed my Federal MP as well as the minister responsible for Australian Standards:
Senator the Hon Tim Ayres
Minister for Industry and Innovation
Minister for Science
[email protected]
An edited version of my letter to Tim Ayres:
(start)
as a senior Australian who still requires access to Australian & International Standards, I wish to plead that ANY Standard referred in Legislation or Regulation should be freely viewable. I have worked on Australian Standards during my working life & have always thought that there should be cost-free access to these necessary documents.
Hopefully you may be able to free the supply of access to Standards by publishing them on a free-access site such as Astlii, that already publishes Australian Law (& Standards are Laws). This can also be argued for Small business as a way of increasing Productivity. Many Small Businesses are using out-dated Standards due to the cost of purchasing Standards required for safely & legally running a small business.
(end)
Addition to Doug‘s excellent comment, I also have accessed the same standards via the New Zealand electricians website as electricians are provided access to these free of charge as part of their licensing
Well said Doug
Good job!
Maybe the best call out yet?
I am ex large scale data centres and IT management with physics/electronics
background.
These days, I am not in a position to pay up every time I would like to view a standard.
However, I find that NZ web sites often provide a path to the very same standard of interest.
As for solving the problem; maybe a partition?
..petition?
Perhaps he was talking about NZ! (very TIC)
Sparky here – I was told students get free standards. So I signed up to a free part time three year tafe diploma in electrical engineering.
Once that was completed I decided to do a part time degree at uni. So still have access to standards albeit paid for by the uni and my course fee’s no doubt.
Tafe access was ok, they were downloadable PDF’s. Yes they required a special software download. Uni is a different kettle, no downloads – online browser view only.
Sucks that a solar sparky has needed to pay to access per “book”:
AS3000
AS3008
AS5033
AS5139
AS4777
+more
I’m a retired Mechanical Engineer, Finn. You’re 100% right about this. How can I help you with this?
I agree with the principal of free standards per se. However, they are NFP organisation and made a loss in 2024 (?) according to their financial statements. They have to balance to books so someone has to pay for the upkeep of the large library of standards. If the Govt is funding the expected shortfall from loss of sales- then this makes sense
Feel free to actually read the article where I directly address the financials of Standards Australia.
Queensland has a palliative care facility offering its services at no cost to families, and is begging for funding support to stave off closure. This outfit, despite a big financial buffer, gets 10 million dollars a year to make things more difficult for punters and professionals. What happened to real priorities? Illich was right.