Introduction

[Kevin Foster]

In the introduction to REBOK there is a statement:  "Risk management of engineering design is also mandated under international standards."   It is important to understand that the use of ISO and Australian Standards are not mandatory unless legislation requires them to be used.    Also, ISO 31000 is a set of guidelines including principles, framework and process.   Its intent is for use by people to create and protect value in organisations by managing risks, setting and achieving objectives and improving performance.   The application of the guidelines can be customised to any organisation and its operating context.  The words "shall" and "must" are not used in this standard except in the foreword in relation to ISO's responsibilities.  There is nothing written into this standard that mandates the use of any of the guidelines.  Therefore the referenced statement in the REBOK introduction should be re-written to clarify the intent of the statement.  If the intent is to reference legislation that mandates the use of ISO 31000 or other international risk management and resilience standards then it would be better to be clear about that.

[Geoff]

Good pick up Kevin.

We will modify this statement to reflect the intent as you correctly describe it.We should also recognise that standards offer a benchmark in performance or process that is a minimum expectation and if something better is warranted, then this should be done where the precautionary principle applies like in WHS and Environmental legislation. Intros time there is more and more expectation that the precautionary principle is applied to other risks like reputation risk or political risk because the negative outcomes are often unacceptable: Royal commissions , enquiries, bad press etc.

[Kevin Foster]

🤙