Once accredited, Standards Development Organisations (SDOs) have a series of on-going responsibilities to ensure their continued accreditation.

The first is to maintain and keep up-to-date the Australian Standards they develop within the scope of their accreditation. This process is overseen by Standards Australia.

Standards Australia will maintain a register of current Australian Standards projects and to ensure that information is available on all current Australian and International standards.

All SDOs must work closely with Standards Australia throughout the Standards development process. The ongoing requirements for all SDOs, including areas they should liaise with Standards Australia on, are included in Requirements for Accreditation of Standards Development Organisations.

When it comes to the registration of new Australian Standards development projects, ABSDO has developed Criteria for designation as an Australian Standard. This document addresses two sets of criteria:

• Part A – New project registration
• Part B – Final process approval

Criteria to develop Australian Standards

Criteria for Designation as an Australian Standard

These Criteria apply to the preparation, amendment, reconfirmation or withdrawal of an Australian Standard.  They require registration and justification of new Standards projects with Standards Australia and specify how the Standards development processes will meet representative, transparent and consensus conditions.   Two major elements relate to the need to consider international Standards before developing a different national Standard (and justify this decision) and the ability of an SDO to delegate the role of final verification and process approval of their Standard to Standards Australia.