Australia along with many other coutries introduced mandatory helmet laws in the 1960's and 70's, initially the British Standard was adopted as the Australian Standard. In 1974 the US DOT FMVSS218 standard was adopted & published as AS1698.

The Standards Association of Australia published the standard, performed certification & offered ongoing compliance services.

From the start problems emerged, poor consumer protection laws allowed the distribution and sale of sub-standard helmets & there were prosecutions based on the “fit for purpose” principle under the 1974 Trade Practices Act with some success.

The problems were considered great enough that an enquiry was held, the interim report of the Commonwealth House of Representatives Inquiry into Motorcycle and Bicycle Safety was tabled 1 June 1978. The committee never completed its work.

A nationally mandated product safety standard was enacted in 1978 under the Trade Practices Act, imports were restricted but it was not adhered to by importers or certification organisations & more problems emerged. The enquiry was recommenced in 1984.

The enquiry tabled their final report in 1986, they found the SAA had not adequately observed the requirements of the published standard in testing and certification. The committee also recommended compliance monitoring by an independant agency.

The committee noted that if the Government had acted on the 1978 enquiry interim report the 1985 enquiry may not have been needed. The Government accepted all the recommendations of the enquiry then failed to implement all the recommendations.

In 1990 ACCC CPN 9 was gazetted making a modified AS1698-1988 the mandatory standard, specifically excluding the use of an external Certification Trade Mark sticker by either the ACCC or the State Regulatory Authorities. The reason for this was that there were to be multiple competing Conformance Assessment Bodies (CABs) used by the helmet manufacturers & no single licenced AS1698 compliance Certification Trade Mark (CTM) sticker was created for manufacturers to use under licence.

The failure to nominate a single Certification Trade Mark left AS1698 as the only major helmet standard without a single identifiable mark. It also meant there was no database showing which models of helmets were certified. A fatal flaw in the standard.

In 1991 the "kite mark" of the Standards Association was allowed to lapse & the "five ticks" mark was introduced & used until SAI Global was floated as a separate independant company. The 5 ticks CTM was transferred to SAI Global but CTM registration was refused and SAI Global registered a very similar CTM. Even today many people still think the 5 Ticks label is a Govt sticker.

In 1996 the process of deregulating the standards system for all products was commenced. The changes were not just deregulation of the product compliance system. As part of the deregulation Standards Australia agreed to allow their other Certification Trade Marks to lapse. Hard as it is to believe, some State Govt Road Rules still require these certification marks in 2014.

In the case of motorcycle helmets the system envisaged was a US DOT style system. This was intended to be self certification by the helmet manufacturers & random testing conducted by the ACCC to ensure products in the marketplace were compliant to the standard. Some States did not amend their Road Rules to match the deregulation which meant onshore compliance testing with all it's associated costs continued. Now some States dont even reference the ACCC standard compounding the problems.

Throughout the 2000's problems in labelling and certification continued with many problems highlighted not by the ACCC or CABs but by the motorcycle rider organisations. The AS1698 standard and associated regulations have been problematic and characterised by Govt neglect and mis management for far too long.