Limited review of the aquatic toys mandatory standard
Background information
This page provides background information about the questions in this survey. You can save your answers and come back to this page at any time when completing this survey.
About the aquatic toys mandatory standard
The mandatory standard for aquatic toys was first introduced in 1986 to ensure aquatic toys supplied in Australia have key safety features and labelling to reduce the risk of serious injury or death to children from drowning.
The mandatory standard was last updated in 2020. It references parts of the voluntary international standard for safety of toys (ISO 8124-1:2018) and the voluntary Australian Standard for safety of toys (AS/NZS ISO 8124.1:2019). These voluntary standards were updated in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The voluntary Australian Standard is a direct adoption of the international standard.
Find out more about the mandatory standard on the ACCC Product Safety website.
Consultation issues
Retain the current mandatory safety standard (maintain the status quo)
If the status quo is maintained, there would be no change to the mandatory standard, and it will continue to reference the 2018 ISO standard and the 2019 voluntary Australian Standard. These voluntary standards have been superseded.
Maintaining the status quo would mean that the mandatory standard would not reference the latest voluntary international and Australian standards. Businesses would not be able supply products that comply with the updated voluntary international and Australian standards, unless they have additionally met the 2018 voluntary international standard and the 2019 voluntary Australian Standard.
Consumers will have the same level of protection they have now but may miss out on safety improvements provided by the updated versions of the voluntary international and Australian standards.
Referencing the updated voluntary international and Australian standards
We are consulting to determine the suitability of the updated versions of the referenced voluntary international and Australian standards before making a recommendation to the Minister.
The mandatory standard for aquatic toys references Clause 4.20 and Annex B.2.6 of the 2018 voluntary international standard and the 2019 voluntary Australian Standard. Clause 4.20 covers safety requirements for aquatic toys and Annex B.2.6 provides labelling requirements.
Where a mandatory standard allows for more than one voluntary standard, or one version of a voluntary standard as a compliance option, suppliers can be required by the mandatory standard to include information on which compliance option(s) the product complies with. This compliance information could be marked on the product itself, the packaging, or in information provided with the product.
Allowing mandatory standard references to be dynamic
Mandatory standards can reference one or more voluntary standards. Voluntary standards are updated from time-to-time. Ordinarily, a mandatory standard would reference only the version of the voluntary standard that was in place when the reference was introduced into the mandatory standard.
Dynamic referencing means that the mandatory standard references a voluntary standard as it exists from time-to-time. This will allow updates to the referenced voluntary standard to flow through to the mandatory standard, keeping pace with global product safety developments.
We propose allowing a 6-month review period before any updates to a referenced voluntary standard take effect in the mandatory standard. During this time, we will review these updates to ensure they are appropriate.
We can recommend to the Minister to stop an update to a voluntary standard taking effect in the mandatory standard, where necessary.
Transition periods
Appropriate transition periods in the mandatory standard allow for:
- changes arising from this review to take effect
- superseded versions of the referenced standards remaining as compliance options for a specified time.
Transition periods allow businesses to:
- sell existing stock
- make manufacturing and design changes
- undertake testing to ensure compliance with an updated standard.