Please Commission Members
 
Having been in private practice for some 25 plus years, working across a range of industries, and having to communicate the requirements of society need through concise and non ambiguous terminology while at the same time trying to achieve a positive outcome for clients, I find that the vast array of standards and the associated costs to ACCESS them have formed a barrier to my PRODUCTIVITY time and time again.

All to often I have Builders contact me — Builders — YES.... asking me to send them parts of the relevant Standard to appease Authorities when they are questioned as to some detail, some way of constructing an item , or some methodology that even the Authority concerned has not realised is now a Mandatory requirement.

Now working in Local Government I was appalled to discover that A City Municipal Council did not have the Financial Resources to Budget for an ongoing and all encompassing Subscription to Australian Standards.

I am talking about a KEY community entity.

The so called and truly crux of local community aspirations - the body that determines how and where we all live, work and play... and theoretically has the ability to determine that all things associated with that living, working, and playing are done in a safe, regulated, and best possible way, even such a body cannot, (and through the culture of society, is not even willing to question why not) maintain full ACCESS to the Australian Standards that OUR COMMUNITY demand are followed.

Getting emotional about this subject will of course not aid my case; so in a very controlled and determined but singularly LOUD voice I personally call for this commission to resolve that the whole suite of Current Australian and New Zealand Standards (Yes we are bound by NZ standards also) be made available at No or minimal cost - and that (as we are the Clever Country) there be a community awareness campaign to make the population see that these tools  , these STANDARDS are here for the betterment of Society as a whole and are not just the TRAPPING of a MEGALOMANIAC BUREAUCRACY hell bent on making life difficult and determined to do it at everyones expense.

Sincerely

Alan Jankowiak B.Sc.(arch) Grad.Cert.Erg