dont forget the laws coming in in June/july! Children up to the age of 4 need to be in a seat with a built in harness. So of your choices the maxi rider definatly
Hi

This is the first time I've ever posted anything so forgive me if I do something wrong - it's also a bit long.

Our daughter is ready for a booster seat but we got incorrect advice from the shop assistant in Brisbane. So I went looking for more information about the new child seat laws that are coming in sometime during 2009. There is nothing in the new regulations about having to have an in-built harness after 4 which is not what we were told in the shops - the new National legislation they are looking at includes:

* a child six months old or older but less than four years old must be restrained in a suitable rearward facing approved child restraint or in a forward facing approved child restraint that has an inbuilt harness.
* a child between the age of four years and seven years of age must be restrained in a suitable forward facing approved child restraint that has an inbuilt harness or be seated on an approved booster seat and be restrained by a seatbelt.
* a child under the age of four years must not be in the front passenger seat of a vehicle with two or more rows of seats.
* a child between the age of four years and seven years must not be in the front passenger seat if the vehicle has two or more rows of seats unless all the other seats are occupied by children under the age of seven years.

If a child is heavier or taller than 'normal' - like my little monkey is - a restraint appropriate to the child's height or weight may be used.

The shop assistant was confused about the need for an in-built harness in a booster seat - they are not required in a booster seat. They were pushing us to buy the Maxi Rider II - bit more searching and I found that the Infa Vario Kid was classed as the safest booster seat. We had the Safe-n-Sound Meridian up to now - was surprised that there were other safer rearward and forward facing seats.

Also found a link to child restraint tests for Australian seats - it's at:
Safer child restraints

I found it pretty hard to track this information down so thought it might help someone else - hopefully not too boring.

Thanks