World News
Joint trans-Tasman standards rise by 30 per cent and a trade mission is aimed at Brisbane 2032
By Staff Writer | 6 September 2026
New Zealand and Australia closed their annual trade ministers' meeting in Auckland on 4 September with a 30 per cent increase in joint standards projects, a new agreement between the two national standards bodies, and a trade mission built around an estimated 15 billion Australian dollars of Brisbane 2032 procurement and expenditure.
The Closer Economic Relations Trade Ministers' Meeting brings the two trade ministers together once a year to work on what the two governments call the Single Economic Market. This year it was Todd McClay, New Zealand's Minister for Trade and Investment, and Senator Don Farrell, Australia's Minister for Trade and Tourism, and the outcome is more procedural than it sounds.
Three things the ministers put their names to
The first is a new programme of trans-Tasman work between business and government, set up to implement proposals from the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum aimed at reducing the cost of doing business between the two countries. The stated subjects are regulatory coherence and common standards, supply chains, climate adaptation, defence industry collaboration, space, innovation and technology.
The second is the standards line, and it is the one with a number attached. Joint Trans-Tasman Standards projects rise by 30 per cent, enabled by a new Standards Development and Distribution Agreement and an accompanying Statement of Operating Procedures signed by Standards New Zealand and Standards Australia. The two governments describe the agreement as modernising trans-Tasman standards collaboration, strengthening alignment and reducing barriers to trade.
The third is coordination across the regional trade agreements, named as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the regional partnership known as RCEP, PACER Plus and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area.
We have taken on board feedback from the trans-Tasman business community and look forward to working with the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum to implement their proposals.
Todd McClay, New Zealand Minister for Trade and Investment
Why a standards count matters on a cross-border bid
A separate standard is a separate specification, and a separate specification means separate design, separate testing and separate certification on the same product. That cost lands on whoever is bidding across the Tasman, and it is invisible until the specification is opened. A 30 per cent rise in the number of standards written jointly is a direct reduction in how often that happens.
Alongside it the ministers reaffirmed their commitments under the Australia New Zealand Government Procurement Agreement, which they describe as providing a single competitive procurement market and a level playing field for Australian and New Zealand suppliers, and discussed further work on the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement, on services and on standards alignment.
The Brisbane number, and what it is not
A trade mission to Brisbane was announced so that New Zealand businesses can go after procurement tied to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, against what the New Zealand government puts at an estimated 15 billion Australian dollar programme of investment and expenditure. That figure is the size of the programme, not the value of anything awarded, contracted or reserved for New Zealand suppliers, and neither government put a share on it.
It is worth being precise about what came out of the room. The only instrument either government names as signed is the standards agreement and its operating procedures between the two national standards bodies. Everything else is described as welcomed, agreed to advance, or reaffirmed, including the two prime ministers' commitment to explore how the Single Economic Market might be widened. A joint statement was issued after the meeting.
For a contractor or a supplier working both sides of the Tasman, the figure to watch is not the fifteen billion. It is how many of the standards in the next specification are now the same in both countries.