All stories
The front page and the section pages show what is current. This page lists everything we have published, so a story stays findable after it stops being news.
19 stories · most recent 1 October 2026 · this page is generated at build, so it is never out of date
Data
Comparing the July and August releases of the ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator: July's furnishings figure went from plus 0.4 to plus 0.3 per cent and its level fell $14.8 million. April, May and June were all revised down too, by progressively smaller amounts the further back you go.
Rules & compliance
Australia's free public registers tell you a window-covering company's legal status, not who owns it. The ACCC's new mandatory merger register starts at $200 million in combined revenue, far above this trade. What a buyer can actually check before paying a deposit.
Rules & compliance
Made 2 Trade Pty Ltd, trading as TWO Australia, and All Shutters & Blinds Pty Ltd are both recorded by ASIC as under external administration. Checked on the same day, both companies' ABNs read Active on ABN Lookup, which is the free check most people would do. What that gap means if you have paid a deposit, and what ASIC's own guide for creditors says happens next.
Bushfire & BAL
In NSW a BAL Certificate must be obtained before a Complying Development Certificate can issue, and it must state the BAL is not BAL-40 or BAL-FZ. So a site's bushfire rating decides which approval route is even available, not just what has to be built.
Bushfire & BAL
AS 3959 costs $286.63, but the step that decides which BAL applies to a NSW property is not in it. Appendix 1 of Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 replaces Section 2 of AS 3959 for NSW, and it is published free. What the assessment actually looks at.
Rules & compliance
MSF30926 Certificate III in Shading and Security Screens has been current since 13 March 2026, and the National Training Register lists no RTO approved to deliver it. The qualification it replaced still has three, and every one of their scopes ends on 11 March 2027.
Data
Australia's CPI used to publish an expenditure class called Floor and window coverings. In the 16th series, from the September quarter 2011, the ABS discontinued it and split it: floor coverings kept a class of their own, and window coverings were folded in with towels, sheets and tablecloths. That class is 0.464 per cent of the basket and has fallen 9.7 per cent since, while the CPI rose 43.9 per cent. What it can and cannot tell a buyer.
Rules & compliance
Standards Australia's Reader Room gives free access to the entire catalogue of Australian Standards, but only for personal, domestic or household use. A homeowner can read AS 3959 for nothing. The business that has to comply pays $286.63, and three standards a window business plausibly needs come to $860.72. Eighty-four days after the Budget promised free access, the store still calls it proposed.
Rules & compliance
Consumer Protection WA tells renters that landlords must make blind and curtain cords safe as part of WA rental laws. There is no window-covering standard in WA tenancy law. The duty traces to product safety law covering anything supplied since January 2004, a general lessor obligation, and negligence exposure the regulator spells out.
Rules & compliance
MSF30926 Certificate III in Shading and Security Screens went onto the National Training Register on 13 March 2026, replacing the qualification that had carried the trade's name since 2019. In the endorsed unit for installing interior blinds, checking child safety on corded coverings is written in as a performance criterion. Licensing, the thing that would decide who has to hold any of it, was ruled outside the review's scope.
Rules & compliance
We read the rental minimum standards of every Australian state and territory. Victoria's cord-anchor rule, in force since 1 December 2025, is the only one on the books. NSW has announced one its consolidated regulation still does not show. Queensland, Tasmania and SA's rooming houses require only that a covering exist. WA, the ACT and the NT require nothing about window coverings at all.
Bushfire & BAL
AS 3959 decides whether a bushfire shutter is compliant, and reading it costs $286.63 for a one-user licence. The 2026-27 Budget commits to free access to all standards referenced in Australian legislation. What access costs today, what the Budget promises, and what the standard actually asks of a shutter.
Rules & compliance
Australia's cord-safety law is two instruments: the 2010 supply regulations and the 2014 installation standard. What the 220 mm loop and 1,600 mm height rules require, what 70 N means, the exact mandated warning words, and why the 'AS/NZS 4874' the trade cites does not exist.
Safety & recalls
Hunter Douglas has recalled the AC136-05Bi-CA remote control supplied with Nordic-series motorised awnings under the Luxaflex and Turnils brands, sold 1 February to 17 April 2026. The button battery is not secured and the packaging lacks the mandatory warnings. Stop using it and contact your dealer for a free replacement.
Rules & compliance
Victoria's rental blind cord rule is dated and numbered. In NSW, the safety page describes only the federal installation test, the minimum-standards page and rental-law timeline have no cord entry, the consolidated tenancy legislation contains none of the rule's numbers, and the one 2025 amending instrument would not open. What we checked, page by page.
Rules & compliance
Queensland's nine minimum housing standards require privacy coverings in bedrooms but say nothing about cord safety. Victoria now has a dated, numbered retrofit rule; NSW describes one. Queensland renters rely on the federal supply and installation rules, which do not reach coverings hung before 2011 and 2015.
Rules & compliance
Since 1 December 2025 every corded blind or curtain in a Victorian rental must be anchored so no loose loop of 220 mm or more can form within 1,600 mm of the floor, whenever it was installed. The instrument, the dates, the renter's rights, the free kit, and what the fix costs on the government's own figures.
Data
Home renovation activity rose 10.2 per cent over the year to March 2026, but household furnishings spending has now slowed three months running, to 0.4 per cent in July 2026, and IBISWorld estimates local window-covering manufacturing has shrunk 2.4 per cent a year for five years under import pressure. The demand and supply picture for window coverings, from the primary series, with the gaps stated.
Energy & ratings
WERS, the national window energy rating scheme, is active and covers applied window film. WincovER, the scheme built to rate blinds, curtains, shutters and awnings, has published one news item since April 2021 and its certified-products page returns a 404. What a buyer can actually check today.