Safety Shouldn’t Be Behind a Paywall

The rules they are meant to follow.

Let that sink in.

The minority who’ve jumped the paywall, paid the ransom, created the login, and tried to navigate the clauses know exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s outright absurd.

But this is what happens when essential safety rules get tangled up in commercial distribution deals.

The rule about only backhooking multi-leg chains to the sublinks?

Look inside AS 3775.2:2014

The rule about having an additional 20% up your sleeve in a dual lift?

Look inside AS 2550.1 - 2002

The rule about when you do and don’t need edge protection on a sling?

Look inside AS 4497:2018

The rule for how many strands can be broken in a FSWR sling?

Look inside AS 2759 – 2004

I could go on. But you get the point

As an engineer and someone arguably slightly more tech-savvy than your average rigger, I still find no joy in the process I must undertake to brush up on a small but important sentence hidden inside a standard.

Now imagine a rigger on night shift trying to do the same thing.

Fortunately, the crane industry does have one saving grace.

The Crane Industry Council of Australia (CICA) uses member fees to facilitate access to relevant standards for its members.

But let’s be honest. It shouldn’t be necessary.

CICA contributes industry expertise to help write these standards.

Then its members have to pay to read them.

That’s a circular joke.

Not CICA’s fault.

But still a joke.

CICA also facilitated a great initiative in 2024 in conjunction with Safework NSW who wore the significant cost of producing the NSW Dogging & Rigging Guide. This is no doubt a much needed document and uplifts a lot of the do’s and don’ts from relevant rigging standards into a free, easily accessible guide.

But it is ‘guide’, it’s not the standard word for word and sometimes we need to read and interpret the standard ourselves.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

According to reporting from the Australian Mining Safety Journal, prior to 2021 the net royalty split — after distribution costs — was understood in many cases to be:

• 90% to SAI Global (the distributor)
• 10% to Standards Australia (the author and custodian)

SAI Global was owned by Hong Kong–based private equity.

It is now owned by Intertek Group, a London-based company.

The sole distribution agreement expired in 2019.

Now Techstreet, another US-listed commercial distributor, also sells access.

So the rules governing Australian crane safety are written here…

And sold offshore.

Make of that what you will.

Even the Productivity Commission’s 2025 National Competition Policy review, signed off by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, has again recommended that governments fund free access to standards.

Every one of those documents sets the legal and technical foundation for safe lifting in this country.

Yet the people actually performing the lifts have a better chance of unscrewing a swivel hook than reading the rules that are meant to abide by to keep them safe.

We are just one small industry impacted by this and Australians need to stand up and force change to the way our safety standards are being commercialised.