Tradie pay fix trust plan on back burner

A major phase of Queensland’s landmark construction industry reforms to ensure tradies get paid is now facing a delay of up to two years in a bid to stave off a potentially “chaotic” fallout.

A major phase of Queensland’s landmark construction industry reforms to ensure tradies get paid will be deferred for up to two years, with the state government accepting there were “challenges outside of anyone’s control”.

The move has been welcomed by peak bodies including Master Builders, which warned “complete chaos” would have hit an already struggling construction industry if the next stage of the unwieldy reform had gone ahead on schedule.

The state government in 2017 passed reforms designed to ensure tradies were paid “in full and on time” amid growing controversy around dodgy builders phoenixing – or going bust and popping up again – and leaving subcontractors in a financial lurch.

This involved an industry-wide staged implementation of “project trust accounts”, which involves a head contractors opening up an account for each project.

The next phase was meant to kick in on April 1, requiring contracts of $3m or more to have a project trust account in place — a move that had concerned Master Builders due to the major administrative burden it would cause smaller builders.

Queensland Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

But Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni, in a letter to peak bodies on Friday, revealed the state government would pause the project trust account rollout to smaller builders.

Mr de Brenni outlined two major factors including “market-wide” challenges like supply chain disruptions, labour shortages and increased costs.

He also noted the lack of a fit-for-purpose software platform to help builders comply with the rules — an issue which peak bodies have repeatedly raised and that is borne of Queensland being the first jurisdiction to put these rules in place.

“Reform is a tool for progress in building a better future for generations to come, but it never comes easy, and often there are challenges outside of anyone’s control,” Mr de Brenni wrote.

The government has opted to push back implementation for up to two years while it forms a “steering committee” to engage a software specialist to find a solution among other work.

Mr de Brenni has also committed to pushing for a nationally consistent payment security framework at the next meeting of Australia’s building ministers.

Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell said it would have been “complete chaos” if the next phase came in on April 1 as planned, though he remained concerned about the cost of a viable software solution as smaller builders couldn’t afford platforms costing upwards of $40,000.

Master Plumbers Queensland executive director Penny Cornah, noting the associations members were the subcontractors project trust accounts were meant to protect, said all eyes were on the state and it was important to get the implementation right.