Australia’s standards and conformance infrastructure

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Australia’s standards and conformance infrastructure provides businesses and consumers with confidence in the goods and services they are developing or using. This infrastructure is based on trade measurement, standards and accrediting bodies involved with certification and inspection.

We manage the Australian Government’s relationship with these bodies:

the National Measurement Institute (NMI), a division of our department responsible for biological, chemical, legal, physical and trade measurement
Standards Australia, an independent, not-for-profit national standards development body
the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA), an independent, not-for-profit national accreditor of laboratories and testing facilities
the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ), a bi-national government accreditor of conformity assessment bodies who inspect organisations, products and people

These bodies also represent Australia at the International Organization for Standardization, the International Accreditation Forum and other international forums.

Australia’s Standards and Conformance Infrastructure: An Essential Foundation [609KB PDF] [62KB DOCX] explains the individual and combined contributions of these bodies. It places the Australian infrastructure in the regional and international framework.

Using international standards in policy and regulation

The government has committed to use trusted international standards first, where appropriate. This aligns with Australia’s obligations under the World Trade Organization’s Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement.

The Best Practice Guide to Using Standards and Risk Assessments in Policy and Regulation [504KB PDF] [52KB DOCX] helps policy officers assess which standards or risk assessments to use to support their policy and programs.

Aligning with international standards:

improves Australian access to overseas markets
reduces costs and delays for businesses
increases the supply of reliable products into the Australian market

Memoranda of Understandings

The government has had Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in place with Standards Australia and NATA since 1988. The MoUs frame the government's policy relationship with the organisations: