ABCB Consultation Hub

The ABCB considers consultation to be the cornerstone of its commitment to maintaining a contemporary and relevant NCC and Product Certification Schemes. The introduction of a single source consultation platform has been driven by our aim to:

• promote trust between stakeholders and decision-makers through a transparent regulatory decision-making processes;
• enhance relationships with stakeholders by providing greater opportunities to participate in the development of the NCC and relevant scheme processes;
• maximise the input of specialist knowledge; and
• ensure the timely involvement of stakeholders.

The ABCB’s Consultation Hub is facilitated by a third party online platform, Citizen Space. We join many other large Government agencies, such as the Department of Treasury, Department of Health, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, in moving our consultation processes to the Citizen Space platform.

Our new consultation platform will enable us to manage and facilitate engagement activities in an efficient and transparent manner, which provides significant enhancements for stakeholders. Such benefits are the publishing of consultation responses, comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analytical capabilities, consistent and timely information and historical references.

One of the key enhancements of the new platform is the ABCB can publish public responses to consultations. This new feature means that we will be publishing submissions from respondents for most consultations on the platform. Consultations may include, scoping studies, NCC Public Comment Draft processes, discussion papers and Regulation Impact Analysis processes.

Stakeholders will be able to link back to the consultation once it has closed and review what other respondents have said. Respondents are able to choose to either identify themselves (with consent) or remain anonymous. Note: All information submitted will be treated in line with the ABCB’s privacy policy and the Privacy Information Statement found within the related consultation form.

The ABCB appreciates the need for public involvement and is constantly improving processes to ensure that all stakeholders have an opportunity to contribute. Respondents will benefit from a consistent ‘look and feel’ to ABCB consultation processes and a shared understanding of how we expect stakeholders to participate.

Our consistent approach will result in the release of more timely information from the ABCB. We will also be publishing a “We asked, You said, We did” statement that is anticipated to promote the ABCB’s actions and outcomes of a consultation process by ’closing the feedback loop’.

The Consultation Hub will serve as a reference point for all ABCB consultations going forward. Once a consultation has been open for stakeholder feedback, we will continue to update the consultation until the feedback loop is closed. Published responses, access to consultation documents and the end result of the consultation will be available for future reference.

You can access the Consultation Hub through the ‘Consultation’ tab located on the ABCB website banner. Alternatively, you can bookmark the website address, consultation.abcb.gov.au. Links to all open ABCB consultations, and even closed consultations, can be found on the landing page, or you can search for other consultations through the ‘Find Consultations’ option.