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About our consultations

Consultation is part of our work to help protect people from unsafe products. We consult to:

  • gain a better understanding of a product safety hazard
  • improve and inform our policy formulation and decision making
  • meet legislative and administrative requirements
  • consider the impact on business and consumers of a hazard or regulation
  • make sure that educational or guidance material is useful and effective.

Consultation also supports good regulatory practice by:

  • improving regulatory performance
  • building trust and confidence
  • fostering open and transparent engagement on product safety issues.

What we consult on

We may consult stakeholders about a wide range of product safety work such as:

  • regulations being reviewed or proposed, including mandatory standards and bans
  • research and scoping studies on possible product safety hazards
  • projects to address emerging or priority product safety hazards
  • projects that enhance the product safety system, such as legislative and policy reforms
  • education initiatives including guidance materials
  • annual product safety priorities.

How we consult

There are 2 main ways that we undertake consultation.

ACCC consultation hub

We use the consultation hub where we are interested in views from members of the public or businesses.

Consultation undertaken through the hub is available for any interested party.

Examples of this type of consultation include:

Targeted consultation

We may adopt a more targeted approach for some consultations.

Examples of this type of consultation include:

  • seeking input on our annual prioritisation of product safety issues
  • projects to address a specific hazard
  • education and communication initiatives.

Who we consult with

We consult with a range of stakeholders, depending on the issue being investigated or considered. Stakeholders may include:

  • businesses, suppliers of relevant products, industry associations
  • consumer organisations
  • health and medical experts, academics and researchers, legal experts
  • other parts of government
  • interested members of the community.

Mandatory standards consultation process

1. Publish consultation paper

We publish a consultation paper when we propose or review a regulation. The paper asks businesses questions including costs of regulatory change.

2. Identify and notify stakeholders

We identify relevant stakeholders to get their responses to the paper. We also consult state and territory Australian Consumer Law regulators.

We follow the Regulator Performance Guide when we consult. We are open and transparent with stakeholders throughout the consultation.

Where mandatory requirements may change, we notify the World Trade Organization (WTO) via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to inform international suppliers.

3. Accept and consider submissions

Stakeholders submit responses through the ACCC consultation hub.

We acknowledge submissions in a timely way. If possible, we consider late submissions.

These submissions can be published on the ACCC website, but we don’t publish private or confidential information.

4. Brief the minister

We brief the minister about:

  • stakeholder submissions
  • agreements and differences
  • state and territory views
  • the ACCC recommendation.

5. Publish outcomes

We notify key stakeholders, including state and territory regulators, of the minister’s decision.

We publish the outcome on the ACCC Product Safety website.

Status updates

Contact us if you would like an update on the status of a public consultation.

Subscribe to receive email alerts to receive notifications of public product safety consultations.