Australia revokes mandatory standard for motorcycle helmets

The Commonwealth Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer, met on November 27th, 2015 where the decision was made to revoke the Australian Consumer Law safety standard for protective helmets for motor cyclists.

Standards Australia held an open forum on February 19th, 2015 regarding motorcycle helmet standards and regulation in Australia prior to the revoked standards. The forum focused on issues of regulation surrounding the supply and use of motorcycle helmets across all states and territories and the good use of technical standards. They agreed that there was no compelling reason why a motorcycle rider crossing state or territory lines should have to stop and change helmets to comply with different regulation across states and territories.

The revoked safety standards ultimately removed an unnecessary layer of regulation, but still allows the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to monitor the market for safe goods. Removing a specific safety standard for the supply of helmets while still retaining laws that relate to their use prevents supply and use laws from being out of step with each other and should reduce confusion. For more information, check out the Australian Consumer Law Safety.

Sources:
Standards Australia
ACCC-1
ACCC-2