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What are the benefits of having Minimum Industry Standards?

SAFETY• The arboricultural industry has the highest per-

capita fatality rate of any industry (42 fatalities per nominal 100,000 workers); approximately 28 times the all-industry average

• Improving training outcomes by developing shared national training documents will improve safety

• A national consensus on equipment, techniques and practices allows the industry to agree on minimum standards for safety. This will be a better, and more valid, consensus on appropriate practices than the current mix of YouTube videos, social media forums and misinformation.

PRODUCTIVITY• Creating and updating long-form documents

which describe applied-practice work methods allows all tree workers to quickly and easily access a manual of work techniques

• Where improved methods or better equipment are developed, information can be easily shared with the national tree work community by updating the relevant MIS

STANDARDISED WORK PRACTICES• Developing standard national documents - and

validating them for every state and territory - creates a shared foundation of work practices for arboriculture and vegetation management

• These can be used in training and assessment, to facilitate interstate employment, to benchmark standards of competence and to protect industry-approved work methods

• Many of the national standards and regulations imposed upon the arboriculture and vegetation management industries have been written by non-arborists or academics, describe our work tasks poorly and result in incorrect practices. The MIS documents can be used by Australian businesses to demonstrate compliance with industry-approved work practices.

TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT• The MIS documents can be used to support

training in arboricultural and vegetation management work tasks

• Creating nationally shared documents describing industry work tasks will help arborists throughout Australia receive the same foundational training, use the same terminology and be assessed to the same benchmarks of competency

• By developing national documents which clearly describe the skills, techniques and equipment with which competent practitioners should be familiar, the industry is helping RTOs to meet industry expectations for quality and quantity of learning.

A NATIONAL TERMINOLOGY• By creating shared national documents,

Arboriculture Australia is helping the industry to adopt a shared national terminology and definitions for arboricultural and vegetation management work and equipment. This will reduce confusion between states and ensure that all subsequent documents use the same terms to refer to the same work practices.

NATIONAL REPRESENTATION• The MIS documents can be used as a basis to

represent and describe our industry work practices to any external body. New qualifications, new regulations, Australian or international standards can all refer to the MISs as consensus definitional descriptions of Australian arboricultural and vegetation management work practices.


When will the Minimum Industry Standards be available?The first four Minimum Industry Standards are already in print, and available for purchase from the Arboriculture Australia online shop or from your local state or territory industry body.

The next four Minimum Industry Standards are currently undergoing industry review and validation, and will be available in print as soon as this process is completed. Expect regular updates as each one reaches print.

Arboriculture Australia Ltd. are currently working with subject-matter experts to write and illustrate a full suite of Minimum Industry Standards describing the work tasks conducted by practical, hands-on tree workers throughout Australia, including pruning, tree identification, equipment inspection, chainsaw use, cabling, and many other practices and skills.

The project to develop MISs that correspond to consultant-level arboricultural practices has been commenced, and suitable technical experts and technical reference groups are being assembled.


How many Minimum Industry Standards will be written?

The arboriculture and vegetation management industries have identified the need for between 45 and 50 MISs to describe the work tasks conducted at the different job levels in our industries

Minimum Industry Standards FAQsHow do I find out more about the Minimum Industry Standards?• Visit the Arboriculture Australia

website, arboriculture.org.au. Updates are posted there as new MIS documents are completed, and you can buy the MISs through the online shop.

• You can find out more about the MIS process and which new documents are under development from your local state or territory industry body.

What if I have a better way of doing a particular work task?• Sharing information about how other tree

workers have solved particular work problems is a key outcome for the MIS process. If you have a better way of conducting one of the work tasks discussed in a MIS, then please get in touch via the contact details below to share your information.

The MISs are living documents that are owned by the arboricultural and vegetation management industries - they will be revised regularly whenever safer or more efficient work methods are adopted by the industry

How do I get involved and support this process?• If you have a particular area of expertise, or if

you have information or documentation that you can contribute to the MIS development process, then please get in touch using one of the contact methods below.

• The best way to support this process is to buy the MIS documents and adopt the work practices described into your company Safe Operating Procedures or Safe Work Method Statements.

Do I have to comply with the MISs?• Minimum Industry Standards are just that:

minimum standards. Equipment, tests, inspection methods or practices other than those described in this document may be perfectly satisfactory. If you have a safer or better way of conducting a work task, this may well supersede the methods described in the relevant MIS.

• A MIS is an attempt by the industry to present an industry consensus on the skills, techniques and equipment with which competent practitioners should be familiar

How should the MISs be used in training and assessment?• A key outcome for the production of national

MIS documents is their use to support training aligned to the arboriculture and vegetation management industry sector-specific units of competency.

• The industry consensus of the benchmark of competence in a work task is defined by the relevant MIS. Where units of competency are not specific in their description of the industry techniques or benchmark of ability expected of holders of that unit, RTOs should use the relevant MIS document as a supplementary guide for industry expectations when conducting training or designing assessment instruments.

Will the MISs be available in an electronic format?• Yes: work has begun on developing a

user-friendly platform for electronic delivery of the full suite of MIS documents, along with instructional videos, summary sheets and other supporting content.

• Although the MISs will eventually be available in both print and electronic formats, it is important to ensure that the electronic delivery is smooth and problem-free. No planned date for delivery of the MISs in their electronic format has yet been determined.


http://arboriculture.org.au


The arboriculture Minimum Industry Standard (MIS) project is the first time in history that our industry has come together nationally to unite and represent the arboriculture and vegetation management industries as a whole. This is being achieved by having sound national conversations about safe and current techniques for conducting all facets of arboricultural and vegetation management tree work tasks and ensuring correct advice is

being disseminated.

Arboriculture Australia™ volunteers have been working with like-minded state and territory arboriculture bodies along with subject matter experts for over a year to deliver the first MIS documents,

which we are proud to finally have in print.

Over the coming year the project working group will complete many more MIS books, ensuring that industry practitioners in the arboriculture and vegetation management industries have sound minimum standards to work with.

The MIS programme has connected with practitioners through to senior managers and consultants across our nation, all working together to ensure a healthy and stable treed landscape is maintained for future generations to enjoy.

- Craig Hallam

Chair Arboriculture Australia Ltd.

A message from our chair:

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