Limited review of the child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles mandatory safety standard - consultation on exposure draft safety standard

Overview

The ACCC is conducting a limited review of the mandatory safety standard for child restraint systems for use in in motor vehicles — the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 - Consumer Protection Notice No. 3 of 2014 - Safety Standard: Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles (the mandatory standard).

We are seeking your views on the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026 linked at the bottom of this page. Subject to this consultation process, we propose to recommend the Minister replace the current mandatory standard for child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles (child restraints) with the exposure draft.

The exposure draft has been informed by the November 2025 public consultation in which stakeholders supported the options to:

• update the mandatory standard to reference the latest version of the voluntary Australian Standard, while maintaining the existing variations and exclusions.
• allow compliance with the voluntary Australian Standard as it exists from time to time (dynamic referencing).

Provide us with your views

We are seeking your views on the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026.

We are not seeking views on which voluntary standards should be referenced in the mandatory safety standard. These were considered during the previous consultation. More information about the previous consultation can be found in the November 2025 public consultation.

Your submission may assist in refining the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026 to ensure the provisions are clear, practical and complete.

How to make a submission

Before submitting your feedback, please read the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026 and section-by-section explanation linked at the bottom of this page. You may also wish to review the November 2025 public consultation and submissions for additional context.

Submit your views using the online survey linked at the bottom of this page.

Submissions are due by Wednesday 2 December 2026.

If you are unable to make your submission through the ACCC Consultation Hub, you can post or email your submission to:

Director
Standards Reform Team
Consumer Product Safety Division
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission
GPO Box 3131 Canberra ACT 2601

Email: ProductSafety.Regulation@accc.gov.au

If you are emailing or posting your submission, please include your name, organisation (if any) and contact details.

We prefer submissions be in electronic format (such as MS Word or PDF) that is text searchable and allows a ‘copy and paste’ function.

The survey should take about 30 minutes to complete. You can save your answers and return at any time to complete your submission. You do not need to complete all questions to make a valid submission.

Publication of submissions

All submissions will be treated as public documents and published on the ACCC Consultation Hub in accordance with the ACCC’s Information Policy, unless otherwise requested.

Any parties wishing to submit commercial-in-confidence material should clearly mark it as such and submit both a public version and commercial-in-confidence version of their submission, with reasons explaining why it is confidential. More information about the ACCC’s treatment of confidential information can be found in the ACCC’s Information Policy.

Next steps after consultation

We will review submissions and make our final recommendation to the Minister about updating the mandatory standard.

We will publish the outcome of this consultation on the ACCC Product Safety website.

Accessibility

If you have any difficulty accessing any of the information on this page, please refer to our website’s accessibility information. Alternatively, contact us by email at ProductSafety.Regulation@accc.gov.au or phone on 1300 302 502 Monday to Friday between 11 am and 3 pm AEST.