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6 BUILDING CONNECTION Spring 2019
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AUSTRALIA
ISSN 1320-0100
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Jeff Patchell
GENERAL MANAGER
Jeremy Sweet
EDITOR - BUILDING CONNECTION
Justin Felix
03 9542 9024
EDITOR – ACROSS THE TRADES
Paul Skelton
STAFF WRITER
Anna Hayes
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Sam Elliott
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Tracey Glanville
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Brigitta Novosell
03 9542 9005
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Kevin Ezard, Paul Cott, Jerry Tyrrell, Jeremy
Turner, Libby Beech, Gary Smith, Greg
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Rebecca Findlay-Debeck , Dr Jane Bringolf
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EDITORIAL
STANDARDS’
STREET APPEAL
T radies seeking access to
industry standards will soon
have an extra resource in the
shape of Techstreet, the first company
to come on board as a distributor
following legal proceedings between
Standards Australia and SAI Global
earlier in the year.
Standards Australia initially had an
exclusive agreement with SAI Global
for a period of 15 years, with an option
in that contract for a further five years
on ‘market terms’.
But Standards Australia general
manager of standards and
engagement Adam Stingemore says
that no further guidance was given as
to what ‘market terms’ meant.
“We felt that market terms in the
present day should be non-exclusive
so we wanted to reset the agreement
and have other people come into the
market. We don’t think monopolies
work.”
Legal proceedings found in favour
of Standards Australia, giving way to
opportunities for expansion through
new partners.
But, Adam says, Standards Australia
want to do much more than simply
branching out through distributors
and it is currently going through a
fact-finding process to examine how
else it can make its product available.
The next step is to find new avenues
for distribution and for that, Standards
Australia is engaging with the tradies
on the ground all around the country.
“We’ve put out a discussion paper;
we’re going to have face-to-face
consultations in every State capital
and for those who can’t make those,
we’ll also run a few online sessions,
and we’ll be taking submissions as
well. There is no point in us deciding
what works for different industries;
we want the industries to tell us what
works for them. We’ll go out and ask
‘how else do Australians want to use
our product’?”
At present, standards are
distributed as hard copies and/
or as PDFs, and Adam says that
both products perform strongly but
stakeholders are saying that they want
more than that and the emphasis now
is on getting the content out to people
who need to use it in different ways.
Adam insists that the driving factor
behind their fight for non-exclusive
distribution is access and availability,
saying that while there are those
for whom price is a consideration,
many customers simply want easy
access to the content. He adds that
the standard is a tool of trade and so
should be paid for.
While distributors will set their own
individual prices on products, Adam is
hopeful that a new player in the market
will create competition which will have
a positive impact for customers, not
only in price but also in quality and
ease of access, quality of technology,
and customer service.
With the consultation process
ongoing, he says they are hopeful
of looking at new products from
January of next year and, potentially,
approaching further partners.
“We’re not looking to appoint anyone
else in this first stage: that was
about opening up access and we’ve
done that. We want to go through
consultation and then, hopefully in
January 2020, look at licensing and
product framework. Once that is in
place, there will be scope for further
partners, but not next week!”
Justin Felix
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