Weekend Ride

[Cormanus]

The requirement for wearing helmets is contained in the Australian uniform road rules. Each State gets to determine the required standard for the helmet. Where I live (Queensland) its AS/NZS1698 or AS1698 or another standard deemed at least equivalent by the head of the transport authority. I don't know whether any other standards have been approved.

They have their own sticker which must remain attached to the helmet. I understand visors also have to comply with a standard and have a sticker attached.

I suspect it's important if you're going to mandate helmets to require they comply with a standard, but there's an ongoing debate about whether Australia really needs to develop and maintain its own set of standards. There's also a tendency amongst courts and regulators to over-rely on them without any critical analysis of the circumstances of their making. Standards Australia is a commercial organisation and could be said to have a vested interest in making them in as many areas as possible, and there is endless industry and regulator involvement in their design and approval as they are essentially a consensus document. They're often complex and may well be carefully designed as much to make life hard for the little guy as they are to make sure things are done sensibly. Governments often requires that things comply with standards without fully understanding what that might mean for businesses and individuals.

My view—which counts for nothing—is that they should be mandated by law only in very special circumstances. Helmets are probably one of the circumstances in which compliance is important. It costs our community a hell of lot of money to look after people with head injuries.