A W i N o N PR oj ECT TRUST ACC o UNTS

Following the recent launch of our 2023 Policy and Advocacy Agenda , which focuses on sustainable businesses, better building practices and fair and reasonable regulation, the recent decision to further delay the rollout of Project Trust Accounts (PTAs) was a major win for our advocacy team.

The Queensland Government’s decision to delay the further rollout of Project Trust Accounts (PTAs) into the private sector (see page 9 for all the specific details on the delays) has been given the nod by the industry, but we remain sceptical that PTAs will be the silver bullet for security of payment.

It’s important because the industry is already dealing with what we’ve been calling the ‘perfect storm’ of issues, and adding further to the complexity and cost of building in the current climate will only make the situation more untenable.

We’ve always supported prompt payment for everyone in the contractual chain. No one should go unpaid for the work they do – and whether you’re a subcontractor or a builder, everyone knows cashflow can make or break a business.

We’ve been fighting on behalf of members on this issue since 2017, and we’ve always voiced our concerns that the framework is too complex and burdensome.

At the time, we strongly voiced our objections to their introduction – some of you may recall the highly visible and controversial billboards on the M1 at Springwood – which garnered an immediate response from government.

It’s an incredibly complex issue, but in a nutshell, we don’t believe PTAs will deliver on the protections they were intended to provide, mainly due to the difficulty of legislating such a complicated and onerous trust framework for a project account.

We’ve opposed them from the beginning and don’t believe they should be rolled out any further.

Our previous calls for a delay were heard last year, and we are thankful the Queensland Government has once again listened to reason and been cognisant of the burden they place on builders, particularly small business. They face an uphill battle against the costly administrative requirements and impact on cashflow, which is already being reported by financiers and accountants alike.

Research commissioned by the Queensland Government has also revealed there are no current compliant software solutions that meet the requirements of the framework, meaning small businesses are having to engage more staff to manually carry out the administrative tasks for every project with a PTA. The Government acknowledged this shortcoming in its statement about the delay and committed to working with the IT industry on a solution.

With a win on PTAs under our belt, next step is addressing the problems with the looming Livable Housing and Energy efficiency changes in the National Construction Code (NCC) to be introduced from 1 October 2023. Check out our feature on page 32 covering our 2023 Policy & Advocacy Agenda in more detail and our update on the NCC changes on page 11. 