Western Australia’s civil construction industry peak body congratulates the State Government on implementing key recommendations in the Fiocco report through the introduction of the Building and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Bill 2020 into State Parliament.
Civil Contractors Federation WA CEO Andy Graham said the industry welcomed the removal of the exemption for some types of resources sector construction work. “This will remove a grey area in the current legislation which has caused confusion,” Mr Graham said. “As a matter of principle, we believe there’s no justification for excluding any particular type of construction work from legislation that simply helps ensure contractors get paid for the work they have done."
Mr Graham said the revision to payment times, with a maximum 20 business days payment for head contractors and 25 business days for subcontractors, achieved a fair and realistic balance, while the complementary introduction of a payment schedule regime was a welcome step forward to ensuring greater certainty and security of payment.
“The payment schedule process is well understood by our industry and regarded as fair to all parties,” he said.
Mr Graham said the introduction of trusts for retentions was a reasonable reform that would protect retentions in event of company failure. “It makes sense for retentions to be held in trust as they are a portion of the payment that the contractor has already earned at the time of their retention,” he said. “Education will be key to the successful implementation of retention trusts and we look forward to working with Government on ensuring industry is well prepared."
The new legislation reduces the time available to make an application for adjudication, and also restricts the grounds for adjudication to matters included in the payment schedule. “These are both sensible reforms which will give claimants greater and earlier certainty, and will also encourage a shift back to a faster, cheaper and less complicated adjudication process,” Mr Graham said.
