While Australian Standards are certainly useful
reference tools for businesses, their status under law can be quite
deceiving.
Australian Standards are published documents that set out
specifications and procedures designed to ensure projects, services
and systems are reliable and consistently performed. For instance,
they might cover the use of gas in dispensing beverages,
specifications for manufacturing cots or reporting practices for
small businesses. If you've got an issue, you can sleep at
night knowing that there is a specific standard for you (with over
7000 Australian Standards the chances are quite high).
'But are they binding?', we hear you ask. Actually,
they're not. Australian Standards might be a great reference
point for businesses but they are not legally binding. However, if
an Australian Standard is incorporated into legislation by
government (and they often are), then the Standard will become
mandatory. For example, mandatory standards apply to
