Building Industry Fairness Reforms Implementation and Evaluation Panel

The Building Industry Fairness Reforms Implementation and Evaluation Panel was established on 14 May 2018 by the Minister for Housing and Public Works, Minister for Digital Technology and Minister for Sport.

The independent panel was asked to work with government and the building industry to find out how well the building industry fairness reforms were working. The panel used consultations and evaluations to make a report and recommendations for improvement. They were appointed for 12 months.

Report findings and recommendations

The Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (BIF Act) was enacted to encourage the building and construction industry to get better at paying subcontractors fairly and on time. The Panel found that the BIF Act does a good job of reflecting that goal. The Panel identified 20 recommendations to enhance the existing framework and improve security of payment outcomes for the industry.

The 20 recommendations are grouped in the following 3 themes:

• Managing the financial transition to enable industry to get ready for future implementation
• Simplifying the framework to reduce administrative costs while providing for effective monitoring and enforcement
• Improving protections, including having a single retention trust account to be held by all contractors and private principals in the contractual chain.

Government response to the Report

The Government determined that implementing the Panel’s recommendations would deliver an improved trust account framework, and that phasing the reforms in over a number of years would give industry enough time to prepare for the changes and make sure that everyone understood what they needed to do. The recommended changes would also improve the progress payment process.

Consequently, the Government accepted or accepted in-principle the Panel’s recommendations.

The Government has amended the BIF Act to include these recommendations by enacting the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2020.

About the Panel

Membership

The Panel was made up of 4 members:

• Chair: Ms Bronwyn Weir, managing director and consultation specialist in regulatory practice, enforcement and compliance matters in the building and construction industry
• Deputy Chair: Ms Jennifer Robertson, corporate governance consultant and practising lawyer, and former Deputy Chair of the Queensland Building and Construction Commission
• Member: Mr Troy Lewis, specialist in construction litigation and security of payment law, and Partner, Holding Redlich
• Member: Ms Fionna Reid, managing director at Aitchison Reid Building and Construction Lawyers.

Terms of reference

The Panel was set up to assess:

• how well the Government implemented the building industry reforms
• how well the Act supported the policy goals
• whether there were opportunities to make payments more reliable and fair for industry before project bank accounts were introduced to the private sector
• an early indication of economic impacts and outcomes of the building industry reforms.

See Building Fairness: An Evaluation of Queensland’s Building Industry Fairness Reforms (PDF, 1371.64 KB) for more details about the panel's terms of reference, scope of work, and Panel member information.

Background

The BIF Act requires a:

• review of the operation and effectiveness of the 2017 building and construction industry reforms
• report on the outcome of the review to be tabled in the Legislative Assembly by the Minister.

The BIF Act reforms that were evaluated included:

• introduction of Project Bank Accounts (PBA)
• oversight and regulation of PBA
• provisions regarding progress payments

Contacts

• Email securityofpayment@epw.qld.gov.au
• Call 13 QGOV (13 74 68)