NZ building standards are free
I love the free ITU-R, ITU-T and ETSI standards. It's pretty f-ing rude for ISO to start pressuring ITU-T to stop releasing standards. IEEE standards are not too bad as they are mostly self-contained. The "choose your own adventure" journey through ISO and IEC standards is bonkers.
The New Zealand government made a good step in this area. Many (maybe most) NZ Standards that are required by legislation are available for free.
https://www.standards.govt.nz/get-standards/sponsored-standards/building-related-standards/
<blockquote>"The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (Building System Performance) has funded the following building standards, used for Building Code compliance, for free download. This initiative fits within Standards New Zealand’s strategy of working with regulators and industry to get more standards pre-funded, as well as enabling better access to standards that make a difference to the wellbeing of New Zealanders. This, in turn, helps grow New Zealand for all." </blockquote>
It helps that Standards New Zealand is a part of MBIE. https://www.standards.govt.nz/about/
Standards Australia is an independent organisation and so we get to pay stupid amounts of money to figure out how we should build pool fences etc. Queensland has duplicated some of the standards which is good.