A review of all stock assessments undertaken in Australia and packages in the USA was undertaken by the FRDC 2014-039 project. This project found that of the 76 data rich assessments developed in Australia, about 52 of these could have been undertaken using off the shelf (OTS) packages. Although developing bespoke packages has advantages, the OTS packages that are freely available for use by analysts, have been evaluated using simulations and been extensively peer reviewed. Due to time and financial constraints in Australia, there is a need for a more strategic view of the framework Australia should adopt with respect to stock assessments. For example, there is a greater need to rapidly assess not only data rich but also data poor fisheries’ stocks, which will need the increased use of OTS packages. Transition to these packages is hampered by several constraints: but mainly, the packages are not in a single location and capacity needs to be built in their use. There is thus a need to a) develop a toolbox that links to key freely available OTS packages, and b) allows Australian assessors to contribute their models, and c) provides resources for their use.