In January 2015, Standards Australia released an initial draft of the contract which was set to supersede AS2124:1992 and AS4000:1997. To be fair, the draft document received a certain amount of negative feedback from a number of quarters. Since that time, the industry has been waiting with, if not quite baited breath, at least some sense of anticipation as to the final form of the document and when it would be rolled out.

Well, on 4 April 2017, that sense of anticipation came to an end because Standards Australia issued a statement (a link to the statement can be found here) indicating that:

  • The draft document was not 'supported by the full spectrum of interests'
  • It would not publish AS11000 is an Interim Standard or as an Australian Technical Specification
  • It was cancelling the current project and it would recommence work when another proposal is submitted and approved
  • It would reconvene the committee responsible for drafting AS11000 to 'broaden stakeholder representation'

Interestingly, the statement suggests that:

The work of MB-010 will provide valuable input into the future project for the development of AS 11000.

Meaning that some of the concepts set out in AS11000 might, at some time in the future, rise from their graves in the form of a new draft contract.

We shall have to wait and see.

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