During this period the Federal Government showed leadership in the establishment of national standards in a world where there had been no standards for products such as safety equipment like Vehicle User Helmets. The Trade Practices Act was used to specify standards for the States to implement and refer to in their road rules, ensuring sales and use rules were consistent.

In general terms the States implemented the national standards in line with the federal initiatives. It was not perfect but it worked from the perspective of government regulation.

Importers, Retailers and even the Standards Association of Australia did not adhere to the standards and the Government was forced to hold enquiries and act to stamp out the poor behaviour which was largely successful.

The rules were relatively simple and clear and if you had a helmet on your head the police left you alone.

The purpose and intent was if it was legal to sell, it was legal to use and in general it worked.

The 1990 attempt to deregulate the certification of helmets to AS1698 was poorly executed and documented to the public, manufacturers, importers and retailers. The States did not update their regulations and as a result the expected cost savings to helmet users did not eventuate. This is the point in time that the fragmentation of the uniform national framework began.

The ACCC was formed and took over the administration of the Trade Practices Act provisions. From the start the ACCC failed in adminstration of the helmet standards.

Firstly the wording of ACCC CPN 9 was defective in that they dropped the phrase "for use on public roads" from the earlier trade practices proclamations which then made it illegal to sell helmets compliant to other standards for Motorsport use.

Secondly the ACCC did not update CPN 9 in 1996 when import restrictions on helmets compliant to other standards were removed.

Thirdly the ACCC failed to update CPN 9 to either correct the initial mistake or include newer versions of AS1698 in the regulations which made sale of these newer version helmets illegal.

There are also questions over the diligence of the ACCC in the random testing of helmets on the shelf which was mandated by the Federal Government in 1990. There is no public information on the sample rate undertaken or the results.

The move to unify the overall State Road Rule Regulations with the introduction of the Australian Road Rules in 1999 accelerated the fragmentation of the State helmet regulations as the States implemented the ARR.

The end result was a gap developed between what was legal to sell and what was legal to use.