Ms Sue Holmes	- 6 APR 2006 Standards and Accreditation Study
Productivity Commission
PO Box 80
Belconnen ACT 2616

30 March 2006 Dear Ms Holmes
I would like to make comment on a number of issues relating to the study into Standards and Accreditation.

I do not believe that Standards Australia is currently making sufficient use of national peak bodies when selecting ‘expert’ members for standards committees.

As the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Marine Industries Federation (AMIF), I have contacted Standards Australia on several occasions to endeavour to establish a) whether committees are marine related b) who is representing the marine industry on these committees. I have been told on every occasion to look up the website. As there are 1 250 committees listed, not all of which specifically have marine in the name, this becomes a frustrating exercise. Standards Australia is unable to supply me with an effective means of identifying Standards Committees which relate to the marine area.

I believe that wherever possible, Standards Australia should be required to use peak bodies such as AMIF to select suitable members for the standards committees. This would have a twofold effect: It would ensure that the national interests of the industry were represented, rather than those of any individual. It would also allow the AMIF to distribute information to the industry on the outcomes of the Standards Committees.

Currently the work of the Standards Committees remains invisible to the Marine Industry at large.

There also needs to be greater effort made to secure mutual recognition from US and EU countries for AS 1799 or a revision of AS 1799 to enable it to meet the requirements of the EU (CE marking) or US (ABYC) standards.

While I have no problems with Standards Australia and NATA achieving peak body status under the MOU with the Government per say, I do believe that in order to earn that right they need to spend considerably more time in dialogue with peak industry bodies such as AMIF.
S:\AMIF\Standards Australia\letter to Productivity Commision.doc

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
I look forward to meeting with the Commissioner in Perth to discuss my comments.

Yours sincerely

[signed]

Sherry Donaldson
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Marine Industries Federation