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

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About the child restraints mandatory standard

The mandatory standard was first introduced in 1978 to ensure child restraints supplied in Australia have key safety features to reduce the risk of bodily injury to children in the event of a motor vehicle impact. The mandatory standard does not apply to motor vehicle child restraints designed for children with a disability or to items that are an integrated feature of a motor vehicle, such as an anchor point.

The mandatory standard was last updated in 2014. It references the 2004, 2010 and 2013 versions of the voluntary Australian Standard AS/NZ 1754 Child restraint systems for use in motor vehicles.

The 2013 version of the voluntary Australian Standard was amended in 2016. A new version of the voluntary Australian Standard was published in 2024.

Find out more about the mandatory standard on the ACCC Product Safety website.

Recommendations

Based on research and stakeholder responses to our previous consultation, we propose updating the mandatory standard to:

1. Reference the 2024 and 2013 (including Amendment 1) versions of the voluntary Australian Standard.
2. Maintain the existing exclusions and modifications of the mandatory standard, including the exclusion of child restraints for children with a disability.
3. Apply dynamic referencing so that at any point in time, the only compliance options will be (after the 6-month review period and 2-year phase out period) the current version (including any and all ongoing amendments to it) and the most recently superseded version fo the voluntary Australian Standard.
4. Apply a 1-year transition period for the new safety standard, during which suppliers can choose to continue to comply with the old mandatory standard or the new mandatory standard. This means the 2004 and 2010 versions of the voluntary Australian Standard will cease to be compliance options after this 1-year transition period.

These proposed recommendations are reflected in the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026.

Requirements during the transition period

When the new mandatory standard comes into force, there will be a 1-year transition period where suppliers can choose to comply with either the old mandatory standard or the new mandatory standard.

At the end of the 1-year transitional period child restraints must comply with the new safety standard - see Part 2 of the exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026.

Applying dynamic referencing to voluntary standards

Mandatory standards can reference one or more voluntary standards. Voluntary standards are updated from time to time.

Dynamic referencing means that the mandatory standard can reference a voluntary standard as it exists from time to time. Doing this will allow updates to the referenced voluntary standard (either amendments or substantive new versions) to flow through to the mandatory standard, keeping pace with global product safety developments.

However, these updates to referenced voluntary standards should not flow through to the mandatory standard immediately. Nor should superseded versions of referenced voluntary standards immediately cease to be a compliance option under the mandatory standard.

The exposure draft Consumer Goods (Child Restraint Systems for use in Motor Vehicles) Safety Standard 2026 is designed to:

• provide a 6-month review period for the ACCC. This is to review an update to the referenced voluntary standard before the updated version can become a valid compliance option, (see subsection 8(2)(c) of the exposure draft). If found unsuitable, the ACCC can recommend the Minister amend the mandatory standard to stop the updated voluntary standard becoming a compliance option.

• provide a further 2-year phase-out period for the older superseded version of the voluntary standard to remain a valid compliance option, (see subsection 8(2)(c) of the exposure draft). During this time, the updated version and two superseded versions of the voluntary standard are available as compliance options.

• ensure that at the end of the 2-year phase out period, only the updated and the most recently superseded version of the referenced voluntary standard will remain as a compliance options.

The diagram below provides a visual representation of how the dynamic referencing process would work in practice. It uses a hypothetical future update to the voluntary Australian Standard as an example only.

Diagram: Example of the dynamic referencing process for an update to the voluntary Australian Standard.

For clarity, the future update date (1 January 2028) used in this example is fictional.  All dates shown in the diagram are illustrative only and should not be treated as confirmed dates. Actual dates will depend on when any future updates to the voluntary Australian Standard are made.