Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

However, it does prove my point. The serious side of this, of course, is that we have established in certain industries over time the real need to have standards. These days we do not get foiled by the notion of having foolscap or quarto paper. Essentially, it is all based on the metric system of paper. In fact if you go further into that, there is every size of paper for every particular need and you can go from an A size to a B size to a C size. It has all sorts of connotations but the reality is that it is built on a standard. The metric system is very important. It flows through everything that we do in this country. The reality of this legislation is that we are going to be able to tidy up those last remaining pieces to have consistency across all of our systems of measurement.

You need only look to history to understand that there have been thousands of years of development to get to this point. This country has taken 107 years to get to a point where we can standardise most of our measurements. We have tried at different times—certainly in 1960, with a major event for this country; in 1966, with decimal currency; and in 1974, certainly in Queensland and related to the rest of the country. The system of measurement is very, very important for the efficiencies of what we do in industry every day. Those examples I have given from the printing industry are typical. You will find those same systems used in the metal industry and in the service industries for understanding and determining weight and measurement.

The ISO standards were established at an international level in an attempt to maintain some consistency. But, as a global community, we have a long way to go with standardisation. The US are way behind us. The inefficiencies in lots of their systems come down to the fact that they have not at earlier times taken on the need to do what this country is doing right now. I certainly commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context