Standards council wants representation to stay

Press, 27 June 1987, Page 14

Standards council wants representation to stay

The New Zealand Standards Council is concerned that its wide representation would be ‘‘seriously compromised” if a 12-member council was adopted, as proposed in the new Standards Bill before Parliament.

The present council has 46 members, nominated from various organisations throughout the country and automatically appointed by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Caygill. Groups represented range, from the Manufacturers’ Association and the Counties’ Association to the National Council of Women.

: The council; works with the Standards Association of New Zealand (S.A.N.Z.) to canvass the views of interested bodies and then write standards for New Zealand-made goods, codes of practice and workmanship design, and also endorses overseas standards. The bill, tabled in Parliament on June 2 by Mr Caygill and referred to the Commerce and Marketing Select Committee, proposes a 12-mem-ber council. Nine members, including the chairman, would be appointed by Mr Caygill, and the other three would be elected by these members. The present chairman of the council, Mr Gary Tait, said that in the interests of impartiality the council was unanimously opposed to the chairman’s

being appointed by the Minister.

Mr Keverne Trevelyan, the development officer with S.A.N.Z. said that before 1965 the then Standards Institute was part of a Government department. '

The Standards Act was changed, because industries were disillusioned with the way it was working.

“All the lobbying that led up till then was to create an association of Government and non-Gov-ernment people that could work together to achieve standards,” Mr Trevelyan said. “The representatives ensure that the people of the organisations have direct input' into the standards.” Complete control of council appointments by the Government is seen to be at odds with the present Government policy of freeing up many other organisations from such controls. Mr Caygill has told the ' council that the new group would be more of a managerial team, appointed for managerial and technical expertise, and knowledge, of stand-

ards development and writing.

He said that while S.A.N.Z. would not have any special legal status under the new bill, the council might decide to continue such an association in the form of an incorporated society or a charitable trust. Mr Trevelyan said that S.A.N.Z. had about 2000 members, whose subscriptions made up a large part of income. Some of the larger organisations contributed up "to $12,000 a year- 7 ’

“If they are not going to get any representation on the council, they may be unwilling to contribute,” he said.

At present, the Government provides only between 10 and 20 per cent of the association’s funding. * ’ The organisations re-

presented on the Standards Council will submit their views to the select committee in a joint councils. AiN.Z. submission;' ; Many of these and other S.A.N.Z. organisations x will also make separate submissions..