As of 1998, it had 73 members representing groups interested in the development and application of technical standards and related products and services.

Initially, Standards Australia retained a 40% interest in SAI Global, but progressively sold this shareholding down to zero in order to focus exclusively on its core business of developing and maintaining its suite of approximately 7,000 Australian standards and representing Australia's interests in international standardisation.

[2] As a result, in 2018 several groups including the Building Products Innovation Council, the Master Builders Association, an Australian Senate Economics Reference Committee and the Choice consumer advocacy organisation called for the publication rights to be brought under government control and for the standards to become freely accessible.

[4][2] Several groups advocated that a national standard should be provided free of charge to the relevant members of the industry.

The publishing agreement currently held by SAI Global was due to expire in 2018,[2] and the imminent release of the new AS/NZS 3000:2018 Electrical installations standard sparked a renewed campaign for a change of the licensing model.