On 27 February 2012, the Department of Infrastructure and Transport tabled a new vehicle standard - the Australian Design Rule (ADR) Harmonisation. Previously every time the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) improved their regulations Australian importers needed to wait on a costly and time consuming parallel process. This delayed the importation of vehicles with improved safety standards. The new standard will have benefits for business and consumers as it removes this time delay when importing latest release motor vehicles as the UNECE regulation will be automatically referenced in the relevant ADRs. Importantly, the rule harmonisation will provide increased certainty to vehicle importers as to when they can import new release vehicles. A Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Department of Infrastructure and Transport and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
